Researchers track Hitler relatives

BERLIN, Sept. 15 (UPI) -- Two Belgian researchers say they have traced 39 surviving relatives of Adolf Hitler, confirming their relationship through surreptitiously obtained DNA.

Most of those identified by Marc Vermeeren and Jean-Paul Mulders live in northern Austria near the border with German Bavaria, the region where Hitler was born, The Age of Melbourne, Australia, reported. Three relatives, great-nephews living in the United States, have long been known.

Hitler left no known children when he took his own life in 1945 as the Soviet Army advanced across Berlin. He was survived by a sister who died in 1960 and a half-brother and half-sister.

Mulders, a journalist, and Vermeeren, a Customs official, said they have a sample of Hitler's DNA in a "secret locked chest." They said they obtained comparison samples without their subjects' knowledge, from discarded cigarette butts in Austria, for example, and from a paper napkin used by Alexander Stuart-Houston, one of the U.S. relatives, at a New York fast food restaurant, the newspaper said.