Klara Hitler

Born Klara Polzl in Spital, Austria. Quiet and hardworking. Became a household servant in her second cousin Alois Hitler's home. He married her in 1885 after his second wife died. She was 24. He was 47.

Gave birth to Adolf, her fourth child. Three previous children had died in infancy from diphtheria. She doted on him. Alois was stern and distant.

Her husband Alois died suddenly at 65, collapsing in a pub over his morning glass of wine. Klara raised the remaining children alone on a widow's pension.

Died of breast cancer at age 47. Her doctor, Eduard Bloch, a Jewish physician, treated her with iodoform. Adolf paid the bills and sat at her bedside. Bloch later said he'd never seen anyone so grief-stricken.