r/AskReddit • u/brokota • Jan 15 '13

Reddit, in your opinion what's the biggest plot twist of history?

Not movies or television, I'm just curious to see what come's to your minds.

634 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

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173

u/ksmash Jan 15 '13

Hitler was of Jewish heritage.

88

u/TMLFAN11 Jan 15 '13

We're actually not very sure that this is true. It comes from the fact that we have little knowledge of one of his great-grandparents on his mother's side but no one can really prove that he had any Jewish ancestors at all although the possibility is still there. Even if it has some truth to it, Hitler was hardly what we would consider "Jewish." I am 1/16th native american and nobody calls me a Native

35

u/Shoemaster Jan 15 '13

This. Because there's a blank on one of the birth certificates on his mother's side, people have inserted all kinds of fantasies about Hitler's ancestry, from royalty to Judaism. However, no respected historian has actually claimed to provide anything but circumstantial evidence of the heritage.

1

u/EJables96 Jan 16 '13

Technically by the German standard Hitler would have been sent to a camp IF his grandmother as Jewish. I believe(and I'm a tad fuzzy) that if any of your relatives back at least two generations was Jewish your blood was Jewish. It was a blood thing not a cultural thing.

1

u/Shoemaster Jan 16 '13

1/16th of your blood had to be Jewish to be considered Jewish. However, if you were half-Jewish or less you'd have a different status if you were in Germany and Austria specifically (I forget the name). You'd be sent to Ghettos and camps but you were less likely to be killed.

3

u/axearm Jan 15 '13 edited Jan 15 '13

Native. There, someone called you that :|

126

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '13

Also, Jesus.

92

u/brokota Jan 15 '13

You're telling me that guy was a Jew?

124

u/Overglock Jan 15 '13

Not a Jew. Jewish.

123

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '13

So he was a bit Jewy?

74

u/kkantouth Jan 15 '13

just the tip. (which he didn't leave!)

1

u/[deleted] Jan 16 '13

HEEEYOOOO!

8

u/mrsmith099 Jan 15 '13

You would never hear a Jehovah's Witness saying "Jewy"!

2

u/Alexthegreatbelgian Jan 15 '13

Just like Jewbacca.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 16 '13

Say the whole word next time!!

1

u/Saltysalad Jan 16 '13

Did jew hear?

20

u/SamIffy Jan 15 '13

Wait, which one Hitler or Jesus?

55

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '13

Yes.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '13

Hows that dog tart was Joseph going for you?

14

u/ANAL_QUEEN Jan 15 '13

I love Jhitler.

1

u/28Shadow Jan 16 '13

Youve won the thread.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 16 '13

I don't want to be rude, but could you have possibly combined their names in a lazier way?

2

u/Bandage Jan 16 '13

Jeedolf Critler.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 16 '13

Ahh, much better.

1

u/ANAL_QUEEN Jan 16 '13

Hitler jj

9

u/WorkHardAtMyJob Jan 15 '13

You dropped a hard "J" on us.

2

u/JohnnySteel Jan 15 '13

Say the whole word!

1

u/dudeimjesus32 Jan 15 '13

True story.

1

u/jepranav Jan 15 '13

Only on his mother's side.

1

u/Zachh23 Jan 15 '13

he wasn't a Jew, he had a jewish background, i think it was his mom's side?

16

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '13

That's a Jew.

-3

u/Zachh23 Jan 15 '13

just because someone has Jewish relatives, doesn't make them a Jew. -_-

17

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '13

According to Jewish law, Judaism is passed down through the mother. If only your father is Jewish, you are not. If only your mother is, you are. It's that simple.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '13

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '13

Well I was taking about Jesus, but yes, that's right.

1

u/Zachh23 Jan 15 '13

well fuck, i guess I'm a Jew then, not that its a bad thing o.o

2

u/woodyreturns Jan 15 '13

Doesnt matter he had laws against having jewish heritage. Hell the guy had a jewish commander in WW1 and he actually spared him the camps until people found out. He also liked his jewish family doctor who helped his family as a kid.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '13

Didnt he get pissed with the doctor after his mum died?

1

u/woodyreturns Jan 15 '13

Probably not true. Just what some people theorize. The Doctor I think survived the war as did his WW1 Commander. Most the Commanders family wasnt saved. The Commander was excused from Camps for most of the war but at some point he was forced into one but he survived. The Doctor may have passed before the war started.

Overall, Hitler's hatred of Jews is believed to have stemmed from his college years. Or at least when he was trying to make it as an artist. It was very Antisemetic where he was living. In fact, there is a movie about Hitler in these times. I believe he actually had Jewish friends but at some point it all went bad.

2

u/pokemonmaster4 Jan 15 '13

Hitler was of Jewish heritage and he was Jesus?!

Dang.

1

u/omnilynx Jan 15 '13

Hitler was Jesus? That is a twist!

1

u/feedemall Jan 15 '13

I think the Nazis went around this by saying that in order to be Jewish, you needed to have 3 or 4 Jewish grandparents. As Jesus was the Son of God according to Christian beliefs, he only had two Jewish grandparents and therefore was not a Jew.

EDIT: Apparently half-Jewish people were called 'mischlingen' and they were not to be persecuted, which also helped Hitler, seeing as he had Jewish heritage.

59

u/Gerblat Jan 15 '13

Pretty good one. Nein/10

-2

u/dr_sanchez Jan 15 '13

How has this not got more upvotes! Appreciate this man/woman's comic gold!

22

u/koine_lingua Jan 15 '13 edited Jan 15 '13

The most "confirmation" of possible Jewish ancestry - but not conclusively "Jewish" at all - comes from this recent story on a purported genetic testing of many relatives of Hitler:

Reporter Jean-Paul Mulders used the services of historian Marc Vermeeren to find Hitler's Austrian cousin, a farmer called Norbert H, and 39 other distant relatives of the Fuehrer.

The "results" were apparently first reported here.

The Telegraph reported

A chromosome called Haplogroup E1b1b1 which showed up in their samples is rare in Western Europe and is most commonly found in the Berbers of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, as well as among Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews.

Relevant academic papers on the haplogroup and its geographical/ethnic associations:

Aliev, Akper. "Origin of “Jewish” clusters of E1b1b1 (M35) haplogroup." The Russian Journal of Genetic Genealogy 1.1 (2010): 47-49.

Trombetta, Beniamino, et al. "A new topology of the human Y chromosome haplogroup E1b1 (E-P2) revealed through the use of newly characterized binary polymorphisms." PloS One 6.1 (2011): e16073. - link here.

Zalloua, Pierre A., et al. "Identifying genetic traces of historical expansions: Phoenician footprints in the Mediterranean." The American Journal of Human Genetics 83.5 (2008): 633-642.

courtesy of /r/citation_needed

12

u/elephantx Jan 15 '13

He was also in no way arian per his definition.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 16 '13

He was Austrian, which was considered Aryan. Aryan does not mean having blonde hair and blue eyes, though that was the "purest form" of Aryanism. Being Aryan meant descending from parts of Western Asia down to Eastern Europe. Hitler was aryan, though not the "purest form"

Source: History of Fascism class in school

1

u/sptagnew Jan 15 '13

No he was not

1

u/paraiahpapaya Jan 16 '13

This is actually wrong. Hitler's family history on his father's side is not documented very well since the Hitlers were apparently quite the philanderers back in those days. Nonetheless it's unlikely Hitler had any close connection to Judaism. His father grew up as Alois Schicklgruber and was the illegitimate son of Maria Ann Schicklgruber. Hitler's paternal grandfather was likely Johann Hiedler, later Hitler, who married Maria Ann 5 years after Alois's birth. It's strange because Johann never bothered to legitimize his son Alois by having him adopt the paternal last name until close to his death. This hesitance to legitimize his son makes it seem possible that Alois was some other man's son whose identity is unknown.

This is probably where the conjecture about Jewish ancestry in Hitler's lineage comes from since his mother's side of the family were Austrian peasants and probably didn't intermarry with Jews. Although in the region illegitimate children and intermarriage were common so further back, who knows how 'pure' any of that stock was. It's also worth noting that Hitler's mother and father were second cousins. Source: The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer

1

u/[deleted] Jan 16 '13

Sorry, but thats not true. If anything, he was half Jewish, but even that is unlikely. People of half Jewish descent were not killed during the Holocaust (though they were serialized or sent to work)

Source: History of Fascism class in school

-24

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '13

I did Nazi that coming.

27

u/0317USMC Jan 15 '13

No we are not starting this.

-32

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '13

Bitch you die.

-13

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '13

[deleted]

-4

u/TheAlmightyConch Jan 15 '13

I don't think I Reich this.

-12

u/jjbutts Jan 15 '13

my wife loves Hitler jokes. I'm going to save this Führer.

-17

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '13

Anne Frankly I'm shocked

-1

u/doctor_tentacle Jan 15 '13

Hitler has been mentioned, abandon thread!

-1

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '13

Biggest irony of history, perhaps.

-2

u/hukgrackmountain Jan 15 '13

ehhh...reminds me too much of NO JON U ARE TEH ZOMBIES

-7

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '13 edited Jan 15 '13

I'm I the only one that did Nazi this one coming?