Episode

Hitler’s Irish Relatives: The Strange True Story

Podcast
Irish History Podcast
Published
Jul 15, 2026
Duration seconds
1223
Processing state
not_requested
Canonical source
https://shows.acast.com/irishhistory/episodes/hitlers-irish-relations-the-strange-true-story
Audio
https://sphinx.acast.com/p/acast/s/irishhistory/e/6a56514889ccc5fe088e8e9d/media.mp3
JSON
/v1/public/podcasts/irish-history-podcast-778168/episodes/hitler-s-irish-relatives-the-strange-true-story
Markdown
/podcast/irish-history-podcast-778168/hitler-s-irish-relatives-the-strange-true-story.md

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Summary

A video version of this episode is available on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/irish-history-podcast/id363368392 On the day Hitler invaded Poland, another Hitler was making headlines in Britain. It was not the dictator, but his Irish sister-in-law, Bridget Hitler, who had been hauled before the courts in London over a mundane, unpaid electricity bill. This episode explores the life of this woman and the strange reality of the "Irish Hitlers." For eight decades, the story of Bridget and her son has been muddied by sensational claims: that she hosted a young Adolf Hitler in her Liverpool flat, that she helped shape his infamous physical appearance, and that she enjoyed intimate access to his private mountain retreat. But how much of this narrative is grounded in reality, and how much is the product of post-war myth-making? In this episode, I reconstruct the documented history of this Irish woman’s connection to the Hitler family. We follow the journey from when Hitler’s brother, Alois, arrived in Dublin and married Bridget, through to how she reacted when her brother-in-law became the most notorious figure in history. I also reveal how much of what has been written about Bridget is based on a memoir that may actually be a forgery. Sound and Video Editing: Kate Dunlea Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.