Leo Rudolf Raubal Jr. was an Austrian half-nephew of Adolf Hitler who served in the German Luftwaffe during World War II.
Leo Rudolf Raubal Jr.’s Family
Leo Rudolf Raubal Jr. was born in Linz, Austria-Hungary, to a junior tax inspector, Leo Raubal Sr., and Angela Franziska Johanna Hammitzsch (née Hitler), the elder half-sister of Adolf Hitler. Adolf and Angela, born six years apart, developed a close bond. Angela, the only sibling mentioned in Adolf’s autobiography, Mein Kampf, married Leo Raubal Sr. on September 14, 1903. Their son, Leo Rudolf Raubal Jr., was born on October 2, 1906. Angela gave birth to her daughters, Geli Raubal, on June 4, 1908, and Elfriede (Maria Hochegger) on January 10, 1910. Leo Raubal Sr. passed away in 1910, and Angela died from a stroke on October 30, 1949, in Hanover.
Leo was considered the “preferred nephew of the leader,” and Hitler enjoyed spending time with him, along with Leo’s sister, Geli. The special attention given to Geli led Hitler to develop romantic feelings for his niece, attempting to keep her secluded for himself. Geli’s brief involvement with Hitler’s friend, Emil Maurice, heightened Hitler’s possessiveness. In a moment of frustration, Geli tragically shot herself. Some accounts suggest that Leo harbored bitterness towards his uncle for these events, while others portray him as Hitler’s protector.
Leo had a son Peter, born in 1931, who is a retired engineer living in Linz, Austria. Leo died during a vacation in Spain due to tuberculosis. He was buried on 7 September 1977 in Linz.
Leo Rudolf Raubal Jr.’s Life and World War II
Leo Rudolf Raubal Jr. served as a chemistry teacher in Salzburg and made occasional visits to his mother during her stay in Berchtesgaden. Before the war, he assumed the role of a manager at the Linz Steelworks. In October 1939, he was conscripted into the Luftwaffe and held the rank of lieutenant in the engineering corps. As Hitler intensified his efforts in orchestrating the Holocaust and expanding warfare across Europe, he occasionally utilized his nephew as a substitute, given their strikingly similar appearances.
In January 1943, Leo sustained injuries during the Battle of Stalingrad, prompting Friedrich Paulus to request Hitler for a plane to evacuate him to Germany. However, Hitler declined, leading to Leo’s capture by the Soviets on January 31, 1943. Subsequently, Hitler issued orders to explore the possibility of a prisoner exchange with the Soviets involving Stalin’s son, Yakov Dzhugashvili, who had been captured by the Germans in 1941. Stalin rejected the exchange proposal. Leo was held in Moscow’s prisons. Post-war, he continued to be incarcerated in various Soviet detention facilities. In September 1955, upon regaining freedom, Leo returned to Austria and resumed his previous profession as a teacher.
In his testament, Hitler ensured Angela a monthly pension of 1,000 Reichsmarks from his fortune, which he bequeathed to the German state. Whether she received any payments remains uncertain, as Hitler’s Swiss bank account remained frozen until the 1990s, with a substantial portion of the funds being confiscated by the US government.