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Tombstone Of Adolf Hitler's Parents Removed From Austrian Cemetery

This undated file photo shows the grave of Alois and Klara Hitler, the parents of German Nazi Dictator Adolf Hitler, in Leonding near Linz, Austria.
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AP
This undated file photo shows the grave of Alois and Klara Hitler, the parents of German Nazi Dictator Adolf Hitler, in Leonding near Linz, Austria.

The tombstone that marked the grave of Adolf Hitler's parents has been removed from an Austrian cemetery.

The BBC reports the decision was made to keep right-wing extremists from using the graves as a pilgrimage site. The AFP reports:

"A descendant of Hitler's father, reportedly an unidentified elderly woman living in Lower Austria, 'has relinquished her rights and has had it removed,' said Kurt Pittertschatscher, pastor of Leonding near the northern city of Linz.

"'The upkeep of the grave was becoming increasingly difficult as the years went by, and the grave ... kept being misused for gatherings of sympathisers,' he said.

"But the pastor said that the remains of Hitler's customs official father Alois, who died in 1903, and his mother Klara, who passed away four years later, had not been exhumed.

"The house where the family lived is still standing."

The AP reports all that's left at the site is a "white gravel square and a tree."

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Eyder Peralta is NPR's East Africa correspondent based in Nairobi, Kenya.