Hitler had a nephew named Heinz, the son of Hitler's half-brother Alois The Younger. Hitler had a strained relationship with his brother Alois Jr., and both of them hardly spoke afterwards, but he loved his nephew Heinz.
Heinz was ideologically sympathetic to the Nazi philosophy, and his dream was to follow in the footsteps of his uncle Hitler. Heinz attended the National Secondary School of Political Education, an elite school for the Nazi Party and the SS, which opened several schools throughout Germany.
In 1941, at the age of 21, Heinz became an officer in the German Artillery Regiment of the 23rd Potsdam, where he took part in the invasion of the Soviet Union and was awarded the Iron Cross, Second Class.
Soon after, the Red Army counterattacked on a large scale, and Heinz was captured in the Vyazma region (where Napoleon had also fought in the invasion of Russia). The Soviets found out that Heinz was Hitler's relative, took special care of him, and sent him to Moscow for detention, where he was heavily guarded every day.
German prisoners of war captured by the Soviets
But soon after, Heinz died in a Moscow prison. Heinz was generally believed to have committed suicide because he was a good card as Hitler's relative, and the Soviets would not kill him easily. On the other hand, Heinz also knew his importance, he was so badly brainwashed by the Nazi system that he was likely to sacrifice himself for the sake of ideas, which would also make his uncle Hitler have no scruples.
Hitler also had a nephew named Leo Rudolf Laubal Jr., the son of Hitler's half-sister (this relationship should be uncle and nephew, and whether nephews are also nephews, I don't know).
Leo jr. joined the Nazi Party in 1932, but he was cold to politics and not very fanatical. Hitler liked this nephew very much, even more than Heinz, and Hitler often took Leo the Younger with him and attended important events. It seems intent on grooming Leo Jr. to be his successor.
Even this did not change Leo's politically indifferent personality, and Hitler gave up and let Leo go to the northeastern Austrian city of Linz as general manager of a steel factory.
Leo Jr.'s parents
After the outbreak of World War II, many men throughout Germany were conscripted into the army. Leo Jr., as Hitler's relative, always had to play an exemplary role, and he had to join the army, join the Luftwaffe, and serve as a lieutenant in the engineers.
In 1942 Leo Jr. followed his troops to the Battle of Stalingrad, during which he was wounded. The commander of the unit reported that Leo Jr. was airlifted back to Germany for treatment, but Hitler refused, saying that Leo Jr. as an officer should stay with his troops. Hitler felt that Leo the Younger could not be specialized just because he was his relative, which was not conducive to his prestige among the people.
In January 1943, Leo Jr. was captured by the Soviets. The Soviets did not discover Leo's special identity, and as a result, he confessed his identity himself and gave the Soviets a detailed account of his uncle Hitler's habits, interests, and daily life. If the Soviets had been given the treasure, they could study Hitler more thoroughly.
Hitler was anxious to learn that Leo the Younger had been captured, and offered to exchange Stalin's son Yakov for German Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus and Leo The Younger. (Yakov was captured by the Germans in July 1941.)
But it is not known why Stalin refused to exchange, the general saying is that Stalin felt that "a marshal cannot be exchanged for a soldier". But there are more complex reasons for this. Before the outbreak of the Soviet-German war, Stalin was already in a crisis of trust because of the Great Purge, and the officials were superficially obedient to him, but internally guarded against him. Stalin had to re-establish his leadership through this war—not because of the deterrent power of the killing, but because of the visceral respect, and the really powerful leader was to control people's hearts.
Stalin had a cold relationship with his son Yakov, who had been raised by his aunt since childhood and was not at all intimate with Stalin. Great men like Stalin, of course, had "only a country and no home," and he was indifferent to his second son Vasily and his wife, Nadezhda. Moreover, Stalin did not think that the Nazis would kill his son, and it was clear that he underestimated the "power" of the Nazi concentration camps. Eventually Yakov died in a Nazi concentration camp.
Hitler's nephew Leo Jr. was sent to the Soviet Gulag prison to serve his sentence, where he spent more than a decade.
In 1955, after negotiations between West Germany and the Soviet Union, thousands of German war criminals were released from Soviet captivity, including Leo the Younger. He returned to his native Linz, Austria, where he worked as a chemistry teacher at a school until his death in 1977.