Adolf Hitler was unquestionably one of the most evil people, not just of the 20th century,

but in all of history. His very name has become a metaphor for someone bad or someone you want

to associate with something horrible. However, he was a person, and as such, he had parents,

siblings, nieces, and nephews. How did they deal with being related to the most infamous person in the world?

And what exactly do you do when you have the last name, Hitler?

Learn more about Hitler's family and how they dealt with being related to Hitler and having the Hitler family name on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

I'm David Remnick, host of The New Yorker Radio Hour.

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This episode is not meant to humanize Adolf Hitler.

Hitler was a monster and the countless crimes he committed and those which were done under his name were some of the greatest in history.

Since Hitler's rise to power in the early 1930s, the very name Hitler has gone far beyond being a surname.

It's become one of the most potent metaphors in our modern

language for evil, cruelty, or authoritarianism. It's become a shorthand reference for absolute

evil. Instead of being seen as just a historical figure, Hitler has become a cultural archetype,

the ultimate villain. Writers, journalists, and political commentators began using his name as a stand-in

for tyranny or monstrous behavior. In fact, it's hard to even use a metaphor to describe Hitler

because Hitler has become a metaphor. If someone or something is evil, you compare them to Hitler.

No one wants to be compared to Hitler, but what if that is literally your name?

And even worse, what if you were related to Hitler?

How do you deal with that?

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