What secrets did the children of Nazi  leaders hide when they grew up? How   were their lives affected by their family’s  past? In this video, we will show you what   happened to them and reveal some surprising  truths about the aftermath of World War 2. Gudrun Himmler Gudrun Himmler, born on the 8th of August  1929, was the only child of Heinrich Himmler.  

Despite the notorious history associated with  her father, who was one of the key architects   of the Holocaust, she remained a staunch  supporter of him until her death in 2018. Heinrich Himmler had a special fondness  for his daughter, ensuring she was flown   to his Berlin offices from her residence  in Munich, where she lived with her mother. 

He maintained close contact with her, making  daily phone calls when she was at home and   sending weekly letters. Heinrich affectionately  referred to her by her childhood nickname,   “Püppi”. She also joined him  during certain official functions. She contested the widely accepted belief that  her father committed suicide by biting into a   hidden cyanide capsule. Instead, she insisted  he was assassinated.

 Following World War II,   both she and her mother were apprehended  by American forces and detained in a series   of camps situated in Italy, France, and  Germany. They were summoned to Nuremberg   to provide testimony at the trials, and  subsequently released in November 1946. Throughout her life, Gudrun worked diligently  to preserve her father’s image and memory.  

She became an integral part of the Stille  Hilfe (Silent Aid), a secretive organization   providing support to arrested, condemned or  fugitive former SS-members. Her involvement   with the organization was a testament to her  unwavering loyalty towards her father’s legacy. Martin Bormann Jr. Martin Bormann Jr.

, the eldest son of  Nazi Party official Martin Bormann,   has lived a life marked by the heavy legacy of  his father’s infamous identity. Born on April 14,   1930, he was only a child during the height of his  father’s power and the atrocities of World War II. Growing up under the shadow of his father’s  prominent position in Hitler’s inner circle,   Bormann Jr.’s childhood was  far from ordinary.

 However,   the young Bormann was kept sheltered from  the gruesome reality of the Nazi regime. After the war, he was confronted with the horrific  actions attributed to his father, a realization   that led him on a journey of remorse and  redemption. Distancing himself from his father’s   ideology, Bormann Jr. converted to Catholicism  and devoted his life to the church.

 He even worked   in the mission fields of Congo and Cameroon,  striving to make amends for his father’s misdeeds. However, in 2011 Bormann found himself  at the center of abuse allegations. A   past student claimed that Bormann abused  him when he was 12-years-old in the early   1960s.

 There were further accusations of  severe physical violence against other   students. At the time these allegations  surfaced, Bormann was battling dementia,   rendering him either unwilling or unable  to address the accusations. While these   allegations never led to any legal action, the  independent Klasnic Commission, set up to probe   into the abuses within the Catholic Church  in Austria, awarded the accuser compensation.

Niklas Frank Niklas Frank, son of infamous Nazi war criminal  Hans Frank, has spent a significant portion of   his life grappling with his father’s dark  legacy. Born in 1939, Frank was too young   to comprehend the atrocities committed during  the Holocaust. However, his adulthood has been   largely consumed by a quest to understand  and publicly denounce his father’s actions.

Hans Frank, known as the “Butcher of Poland,”  was Hitler’s personal lawyer and later served   as Governor-General of occupied Poland.  Despite his father’s monstrous acts,   Niklas Frank has taken an uncommon route,  confronting his heritage head-on. He has   written several books, including “In the  Shadow of the Reich,” which detail his   efforts to comprehend his father’s  deeds and their impact on his life.

Frank’s commitment to educating others  about the Holocaust and its lasting   effects on families of those involved,  including perpetrators and victims,   is commendable. His candid public discussions add  a unique perspective to Holocaust remembrance and   serve as a potent reminder of the atrocities that  can result from unchecked hatred and bigotry.

Edda Goring Edda Göring, was the only child of Hermann Göring  and his second wife, actress Emmy Sonnemann.   As the daughter of one of Hitler’s right-hand men.  Born just before the eruption of World War II,   Edda’s early years were mainly spent with her  mother at the Carinhall, the Göring family estate.

Edda’s early life was defined by the luxury  and privilege that came with her father’s   powerful position in Hitler’s Germany. She  was often photographed at public events,   a symbol of the Nazi regime’s attempt to  project an image of wholesome family life.  She was the recipient of numerous  historic art pieces during her childhood,   including a Lucas Cranach the  Elder’s Madonna and Child painting.

As the war neared its end, she and her  mother relocated to their mountain residence   at Obersalzberg, close to Berchtesgaden.  The end of the Second World War brought   a reversal of fortune for the Göring family.  Hermann Göring was sentenced to death at the   Nuremberg Trials for war crimes.

 Although he  escaped the gallows by committing suicide, his   actions left Edda with a tainted legacy that she  spent the rest of her life trying to reconcile. Edda Göring attempted to live a life away from  the public eye. She rarely spoke about her father   in public but maintained that he was a good man  in private conversations. In the decades of the   1950s and 1960s, many of the valuable gifts she  had received in her youth, including the Madonna   and Child artwork, became embroiled in long legal  disputes most of them which she lost in 1968.

While the children of other notable Nazis like  Gudrun Himmler and Albert Speer Jr. often publicly   discussed their fathers’ roles, Göring notably  refrained from such public discourse. However,   during a 1986 television interview  in Sweden, she broke her silence to   express her deep affection towards both  of her parents.

 She passed away in 2018,   leaving behind a life that was forever marked  by the actions of her notorious father. Rolf Mengele Rolf Mengele, son of the infamous Nazi doctor  Josef Mengele, has lived much of his life in   the shadow of his father’s dreadful history.  Born on March 16, 1944, Rolf was raised away   from the horrific concentration camps where his  father carried out his notorious experiments.

Rolf’s early life was largely shrouded in  mystery and misinformation. He was led to   believe his father had been a war hero and  only learned the chilling truth as a young   teenager. Despite the burden of his name,  Rolf made efforts to lead a normal life,   studying law and working as a corporate lawyer.

After the war Josef Mengele fled to South  America. Relocating to a new continent meant   that Mengele had to leave his son, Rolf,  behind. This absence from his son’s life   made Rolf a person of interest, particularly for  Nazi-hunters who believed he kept in contact with   his father. To some extent, they were correct.

  Mengele did pen several letters to his son,   sparking Rolf’s curiosity and leading him to  make a journey to South America in 1977 to   meet his father. Reflecting on his journey, Rolf  acknowledged that his father displayed no guilt   for his horrific deeds in Auschwitz,  even attempting to rationalize them. Despite despising his father and everything he  represented, Rolf couldn’t muster the strength   to betray him.

 He kept silent about Mengele’s  South American hideout, hence, the notorious   ‘Angel of Death’ escaped answering for his  numerous atrocities. After their encounter,   Rolf decided to alter his identity and sever  ties with his past. It is speculated that he   is now a family man and a retired attorney  leading a tranquil existence in Germany. Wolf Hess Wolf Hess was the son of Rudolf Hess, a prominent  figure in Nazi Germany and a member of the Nazi   Party.

 He held the position of Deputy Führer  to Adolf Hitler from 1933 until 1941 when he   embarked on a solo voyage to Scotland in an  attempt to hold peace talks with Britain.   Hess was captured and subsequently put on trial  in Nuremberg once the war concluded. Although   he evaded execution, Hess was condemned  to spend the rest of his days in solitary   confinement at Spandau Prison until he committed  suicide on the 17th of August 1987, aged 93.

Rather than distancing himself from his father’s  legacy Wolf Hess spent his life defending him.   Wolf was a staunch supporter of his  father, dedicating many years in an   attempt to change the public perception  of his father. He tirelessly campaigned   to prove his father was not a war  criminal, but rather a man simply   carrying out his duties in the 1930s and  early 1940s, thus absolving him of any guilt.

In his teenage years, while his father  was held captive following his ill-fated   journey to Scotland, Wolf was a frequent  visitor. His actions, however, extended   far beyond these visits. During the 1950s, Wolf  established the Committee to Free Rudolf Hess,   amassing several hundred thousand supporters,  including some notable figures in German politics.  

He authored numerous books advocating  for the recognition of Hess as a   German hero rather than a criminal.  Following Hess’s death in prison,   Wolf contended that his demise was the  result of foul play by his British captors.   Wolf, who spent his entire life defending his  father’s Nazi affiliations, passed away in 2001.

Albert Speer Jr. Albert Speer Jr. was born on July 29, 1934,  in Berlin, just days before Hitler ascended   to the position of Führer. Albert Jr.’s  childhood years were spent in Berchtesgaden,   a village in the Alps where Hitler had a  retreat. There are films from the 1930s   that depict a young Albert playing on the porch of  Hitler’s villa under the dictator’s watchful gaze.

Albert Speer Sr. was Hitler’s primary  architect and Germany’s armaments minister.   Speer Sr. utilized his organizational skills to  sustain the weapons production, greatly reliant   on forced labor, which effectively extended the  duration of the war. Post his conviction in the   Nuremberg trials and a subsequent 20-year  imprisonment sentence, he emerged as one of   the few high-ranking Nazis who showed regret  for the atrocities committed by the regime.

Following his father’s incarceration for  war crimes, the Speer family took refuge   with Albert Jr.’s grandparents in  Heidelberg. During this period,   Albert Jr. developed a severe stutter,  which he eventually managed to overcome. He   initially trained as a carpenter before  shifting his focus to architecture.

Albert Jr. was adamant that his career  choice of architecture was not influenced   by his father. In an interview  with Süddeutsche Zeitung in 2010,   he refrained from discussing his father, who  passed away in 1981. “I have tried my whole   life to separate myself from my father,  to distance myself,” he said. Albert Jr.  

passed away at his Frankfurt residence  on September 15. He was 83 years old. Well, that’s it!