Jean Loret

Jean-Marie Loret-Frizon (born March 18 or, according to other information , March 25, 1918 in Seboncourt near Saint-Quentin in Picardy ; † February 14, 1985 in Saint-Quentin) was a French railroad worker and, according to his own statement, an illegitimate son Adolf Hitler . The thesis of the "son of Hitler" was represented by Werner Maser and was particularly widespread in the late 1970s. Maser's view, however, is a minority opinion in historical Hitler research : Historians such as Anton Joachimsthaler , Timothy Ryback and Ian Kershaw consider a fatherhood of Hitler to be unlikely.

Live and act

Jean-Marie Loret was born in Seboncourt in 1918 as Jean-Marie Lobjoie. The mother of the illegitimate child was Charlotte Eudoxie Alida Lobjoie (1898–1951), the daughter of the local butcher Louis Joseph Alfred Lobjoie and his wife Marie Flore Philomène nee. Colpin. According to the entry in the birth register of his hometown, Loret's father was an unidentified German World War II soldier . Since Adolf Hitler stayed in the towns of Seclin , Fournes-en-Weppes , Wavrin and Ardooie in 1916 and 1917 and, according to eyewitnesses, is said to have had a relationship with Charlotte, there were various discussions about the paternity of Hitler.

Charlotte Lobjoie is attributed to the profession of a dancer in various sources, although it remains unclear whether this was already 1916/1917. Obviously she only seems to have taken up this profession when she moved to Paris a few months after the birth of her child and after the Germans left France. Jean Marie grew up with his grandparents for the first seven years, with whom Charlotte broke off all contact after she left the family. On May 22, 1922, Charlotte married the lithographer Clément Loret, who agreed that his wife's illegitimate son, whom he had never seen, could bear his name. After the death of his grandparents in 1925 and 1926, who, according to Loret's own account, “treated him badly”, his aunt Alice Lobjoie tried to get her nephew to be adopted by the family of the wealthy building contractor Frizon from Saint-Quentin. From then on, the boy attended two Catholic boarding schools in Cambrai and Saint-Quentin. In 1936 he entered the military and was promoted to sergeant major in the following years. He later worked as a businessman for a few years until he had to give up his profession in 1948 due to bankruptcy.

According to his own statement, Loret already knew as a child that he was the son of a German soldier, but he would have had no idea about his father's identity. In 1948, he later claimed, his mother revealed to him on her deathbed that this soldier was Adolf Hitler.

During the Second World War, Loret worked as a Chargé de Mission with the French police in Saint-Quentin - allegedly he was given this post on Hitler's personal orders, although no conclusive evidence of this has apparently been produced so far. Claims that he collaborated in this capacity with the Gestapo units stationed in France have also not been proven. Of course, the fact that he was not brought to trial for collaboration after the war speaks against this claim. However, various sources say that Hitler had all material about Loret destroyed. In addition, Loret was generally considered to be average and not overly hardworking, so it seems rather unusual that he had already worked for this higher position at the age of under 25 at his own discretion.

Loret was married at least once and had nine children, including Philippe Loret, who went public in 2012 with the thesis of being Hitler's grandson. Some sources claim his wife separated from him in 1948 when she learned of his parentage. Later newspaper articles about Loret mention a wife named Muguette who is believed to have been living with him at the time the article was written. It is unclear whether Muguette was a second wife (or partner), or whether she was the mother of his children who had returned to him or had never separated from him.

On June 7, 1978, during the public discussion about himself , Loret was brought by Maser from St. Quentin to his house in Speyer , where he kept him hidden from the critical questions of the press. The two visited the former Dachau concentration camp, among other things, where Loret is said to have said literally "I didn't choose my father". Maser even took Loret to Tokyo to persuade him to give interviews, but the French seemed rather reluctant in this regard.

Loret and Maser finally fell out in 1979, presumably for financial reasons. In 1981 Loret published his autobiography “Ton père s'appelait Hitler” (Paris 1981) in collaboration with René Mathot.

The Loret – Hitler cause

The story of “Hitler's son” was launched in the 1970s, especially in various magazines such as the Bunte , but also in more reputable organs such as the historical magazine “Zeitgeschichte” and the news magazine Der Spiegel . The latter published the most influential story about Loret in its aftermath under the title "Love in Flanders".

The ultimate origin of the story about Hitler's son, which was initially only circulated orally, has not yet been determined. In any case, there were rumors in Loret's homeland that claimed that the illegitimate son of a French woman and a German soldier was the son of Hitler for some time when the German historian Werner Maser became aware of Loret. It has not yet been clarified whether the rumors were started by Loret himself or by others.

Maser claimed to have heard of an alleged Hitler son for the first time in 1965 while doing research in Wavrin and surrounding cities.

Maser followed up on these reports, met Loret and was able to convince him to publish "his story". From then on, Maser went to great lengths to collect evidence of its correctness. Critics such as Anton Joachimsthaler hold against him above all to assign motives for action such as sensationalism and pleasure in the great effect of scientific love of truth.

According to Maser's account, the connection between Loret and Hitler happened as follows: Hitler met Charlotte Lobjoie in 1916 in the city of Wavrin, in the German-occupied part of France, as a soldier stationed there and began a love affair with her. Loret was finally conceived in Ardooie in summer 1917 or, according to other sources, in Le Ceteau in autumn 1917 . The latter must be viewed as the less likely option, as it would require a premature birth, which cannot be ruled out, but there are no indications for the presence of this.

Maser wrote about the relationship between Hitler and Lobjoie in his Hitler biography:

“In early 1916 the girl first met the German soldier Adolf Hitler. It initially stayed in Premont, engaged in sexual relations with Hitler and followed him until autumn 1917 to Seboncourt, Forunes, Vavrin and Noyelles lez Saeclin in northern France - and in May, June, July 1917 and Ardooie in Belgium "

- p. 528.

The critics of this supposed sensation very soon pointed to the ignorance of Maser's claims, which were based on nothing more than Loret's claims.

A hereditary biology report from the University of Heidelberg showed that “ Loret could at best be Hitler's son ”, but this need not be.

The alleged evidence of Hitler's fatherhood were Charlotte Lobjoie's admission to a French sanatorium after the German invasion of France (allegedly on Hitler's instructions) and a lengthy questioning of Loret by the Gestapo in the Hotel Lutetia, the Gestapo headquarters in Paris, as well as the alleged collaboration Listed with the Gestapo as a police officer.

Maser's questioning of Alice Lobjoie, Loret's aunt and sister of Charlotte, whom he wanted to cite as a key witness for his claim, yielded a negative result: Alice Lobjoie stated that her sister had a love affair with a German soldier during the war entertained, but vehemently denied that this soldier was Adolf Hitler. She stated that she can remember the man's face well and that she knew that it bore no resemblance to Hitler. She also put on record:

“Jean is a nutcase. Only the Germans talked him about the Hitler story. "

Maser later tried to weaken Lobjoie's statements in more recent editions of his book “Hitler” by pointing out the aunt's alleged resentment against her nephew.

In addition to Alice Lobjoie's denial, critics of Maser's thesis, such as the historian Joachimsthaler, introduced testimonies from Hitler’s war comrades into the debate, who unanimously noted in their memories of Hitler in World War I that Hitler had decided every relationship between German soldiers and French women declined. For example, Balthasar Brandmayer , who reported in his memory book “Zwei Meldegänger” that Hitler had reacted in the most violent terms against the plans of his fellow regiments to get involved with French women and accused them of having “ koa German Ehrg'fühl ”.

The critics also asserted logical inconsistencies in Maser's story: It is highly unlikely that a soldier in war, and a private lower ranking in the military hierarchy at that, could have carried a lover with him over all relocations of his regiment, like this According to Maser, Hitler had done with Lobjoie: Free movement in the occupied territories was hardly possible, especially to follow the regiment troops.

During the historians' disputes in Aschaffenburg in 1979, Maser initially kept silent about the affair and finally, in his contribution to the discussion, suddenly declared a possible illegitimate son of Hitler to be a very minor matter. Joachimsthaler described this as an " own goal " Masers.

The Daily Express claimed in an article dated February 15, 1985 that a portrait of Loret's mother was found among his belongings after Hitler's death, but failed to provide any evidence to support this claim. In fact, a portrait of Adolf Hitler from 1916, which is supposed to depict Charlotte Lobjoie with a headscarf and a fork in her hand, was found by a Belgian entrepreneur in the sixties and published in an issue of the magazine "Panorama" in the early seventies. published. It is therefore unlikely that this portrait was in Hitler's belongings in 1945.

In 2004, Maser confirmed in an interview with the National-Zeitung , which is close to the right-wing extremist scene , that he still stands by his thesis. In addition, he insisted that Loret " was clearly Hitler's son " and went on to state that this was " recognized by the authorities in France ". In addition, the 12th edition of Maser's book "Adolf Hitler - Legende, Mythos, Reality" contains a comprehensive appendix on the subject of Hitler-Loret.

At the beginning of 2012, the French weekly magazine Le Point claims to have discovered new evidence of Hitler's paternity. Military documents are said to show that Hitler made maintenance payments to Charlotte Lobjoie. Further of the “new” clues, however, only repeat the familiar.

literature

• Jean Loret: Ton père s'appelait Hitler , Paris 1981.
• Werner Maser: Adolf Hitler. Legend - Myth - Reality , Naumann & Göbel, Cologne 1971.
• Donald M. McKale: “Hitler's Children. A Study of Postwar Mythology ", in: The Journal of Popular Culture 15, 1981, No. 1, p. 46.

Web links

• Werner Maser: Adolf Hitler: father of a son . In: Contemporary History . 1st year, 4th issue, 1977/78, pp. 173–202.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Correction of a biography. Adolf Hitler, 1908–1920 . Munich 1989, pp. 162-164.
2. ↑ Hitler . Vol. 1, Note 116 to Chapter 3.
3. ↑ Autobiography, pp. 127–149.
4. ↑ cwe: Affair with a French woman ?: French claim: "I am the grandson of Adolf Hitler". In: Focus Online . April 10, 2012, accessed October 14, 2018 . 
5. ↑ Loret's letter to Mrs. Christine Schroeder dated July 21, 1979, contained in Mrs. Schroeder's estate.
6. ↑ Adolf Hitler: father of a son . In: Zeitgeschichte , 5th year, 1977/78, pp. 173–202.
7. ^ Love in Flanders Der Spiegel 46/1977
8. ↑ Joachimsthaler: Correction , p. 62.
9. ↑ Balthasar Brandmayer: Two reporters. Communicated by Hein Bayer . Bruckmühl 1932, p. 103.
10. ↑ Die Zeit 28, 7 June 1978.
11. ↑ national-zeitung.de ( Memento of the original from September 26, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .  
12. ↑ Le fils français caché d'Adolf Hitler. In: Le Point . February 17, 2012, accessed February 23, 2012.
13. ↑ Hitler's heirs: Did Hitler have a son after all? In: Der Tagesspiegel . February 22, 2012. Retrieved February 23, 2012.