/ 30 March 2012

Headstone of Hitler’s parents to be removed

The mayor of an Austrian village where Adolf Hitler’s parents are buried says the tombstone marking their grave will be removed.

Leonding Mayor Walter Brunner says the decision was made by a relative of the family who says she does not want the grave to continue serving as a neo-Nazi pilgrimage site.

Hitler was born in Braunau, an upper Austrian town near Leonding. But he spent his boyhood in Leonding, about 10km south-west of the city of Linz.

Brunner said on Friday that he had no details over the Hitler relative but is happy over her decision.

He said the grave was regularly visited by rightist extremists who left flowers and Nazi slogans at the site. — Sapa-AP