Adolf Hitler had a love child with a French teenager who later joined the French Resistance to fight the Nazis during the Second World War, according to extraordinary new evidence.
While serving as a soldier during the First World War, Hitler embarked on an affair with 16-year-old Charlotte Lobjoie in June 1917. A drunken night resulted in the birth of Jean-Marie Loret, who died in 1985 aged 67.
Evidence compiled in Germany and France has led to emergence of the miraculous story first printed in Paris’s Le Point magazine.
Miss Lobjoie would later tell her son: "One day I was cutting hay with other women, when we saw a German soldier on the other side of the street.
"He had a sketch pad and seemed to be drawing. All the women found this interesting, and were curious to know what he was drawing.
"I was designated to approach him."
She also told: "When your father was around, which was very rarely, he liked to take me for walks in the countryside.
"But these walks usually ended badly. In fact, your father, inspired by nature, launched into speeches which I did not really understand.
"He did not speak French, but solely ranted in German, talking to an imaginary audience. Even if I spoke German I would not be able to follow him, as the histories of Prussia, Austria and Bavaria where not familiar to me at all".
"My reaction used to anger your father so much that I did not show any reaction." Miss Lobjoie gave her son up for adoption in the 1930s. Mr Loret later fought the Germans in 1939, defending the Maginot Line before it was bypassed during the Nazi invasion, which resulted in France being occupied from 1940 until 1944. Mr Loret also joined the French Resistance, and was given the codename "Clement".
Mr Loret in recent years launched a probe into his past, employing scientists and historians. Crucially, official German army papers which show that officers brought envelopes of cash to Miss Lobjoie during the Second World War.
When Miss Lobjoie died, Mr Loret also found paintings in her attic which were signed by Hitler.
a d v e r t i s e m e n t
This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Saturday, February 18, 2012
