The Young Hitler I Knew by August Kubizek

[Jim O]

Hitler's secret Jewish girlfriend

Much of Adolf Hitler’s early life — especially his late teenage years in the Austrian cities of Linz and Vienna — remains shrouded in obscurity and ambiguity.

What were his politics? Who were his friends? What was his relationship like with his mother? How well off was he?

Above all, perhaps, what was his relationship with Jewish people at that time? Rumours, theories and speculation abound, but little concrete is known.

For decades, Hitler biographers have relied on the memoirs of Hitler’s best — indeed virtually only — friend during that period between 1904 and 1908, August Kubizek.

Now, nearly 70 years after it was written, his book The Young Hitler I Knew has finally been published in English in full.

And while there have been earlier versions — notably the heavily edited manuscript that was used by the Nazi party as an official biography — Kubizek’s uncensored account throws a fascinating light on the fanatical mind of the future Fuhrer.

For it contains, for the first time, the full story of Hitler’s teenage obsession with a pretty girl called Stefanie Isak — whose surname has clear Jewish origins.

And although Hitler’s distinguished biographer Sir Ian Kershaw has rightly dismissed Hitler’s feelings for Stefanie as 'a juvenile infatuation', the passion with which Hitler stalked her and fantasised about kidnapping and committing suicide with her lets us glimpse the mentality of the person he was destined to become.

Furthermore, August Kubizek’s account reveals that Hitler was utterly unconcerned as to whether the girl after whom he lusted was Jewish or not...

Full review: Hitler's secret Jewish girlfriend | the Daily Mail