documentary Hitler’s DNA: The Dictator’s Blueprint Hitler’s DNA: The Dictator Archetype, which aired on Britain’s Channel 4, was destined to provoke controversy and sensational headlines, no matter how hard the author tried to carry out a rigorously moderate work. Some of the conclusions presented decisively put an end to harmful legends and superstitions, such as the supposed Jewish ancestry of dictators (completely false), while others allow for sensationalism, such as the idea that Adolf Hitler was actually Jewish. small penis Or maybe he’s missing a testicle. Others have sparked important ethical debates, such as researchers’ bold speculation that some of the most emblematic figures in human history were clearly predisposed to suffering from neurological syndromes such as autism, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
The story behind the creation of this two-episode show is just as fascinating as its ending. The program features trusted scientists, including Alex Kay, a British historian who is currently at the University of Potsdam and specializes in Nazi Germany, and Tuli King, a geneticist who made a key discovery in 2012 that helped identify the remains of the legendary King Richard III in an open-air car park in Leicester. “There was an agonizing discussion[about whether or not to participate in the documentary],” King admitted in the first few minutes of the broadcast. However, we knew that sooner or later an investigation would take place, and we decided to participate in order to provide the necessary vigilance and seriousness.
Hitler’s DNA was taken from bloodstains found on a sofa in the bunker where the Nazi dictator shot himself in the head shortly after Allied forces entered Berlin. Col. Roswell P. Rosengren of the U.S. Army was able to access the shelter and cut out a portion of the tapestry, which has been on display at the Gettysburg Historical Museum for many years.
None of Hitler’s living relatives suggested the possibility of comparing their genetic material with that of the blood remains to confirm their authenticity. But researchers obtained a sample of the man taken a decade ago by a Belgian journalist while investigating rumors that the future dictator had fathered an illegitimate child during World War I.
This comparison allowed complete identification of the Y chromosome. It was Hitler’s DNA. From there, deductions and discoveries about that character’s ancestry, pathology, biology, and mental health open up the realm of some certainty and much speculation, with more or less scientific certainty.
Kallmann syndrome
For many, the most positive part of the documentary’s conclusion is its categorical rejection of the idea that Hitler had Jewish ancestry, a hoax that has been propagated by Holocaust deniers and historical revisionists for decades and continues to be heard today. In 2022, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov used the claim that Hitler had “Jewish blood” to justify accusations of Nazism against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who is Jewish.
But the program’s most morbid discovery is that a gene called PROK2 lacks a letter. This absence has led to the conclusion that Hitler suffered from some degree of a genetic disorder known as Kallmann syndrome, which affects, among other things, puberty and genital development. As a result, one of the testicles may not be able to descend into the scrotum or the penis may become very small.
The connection will be made instantly. During World War II, the song was popular among British soldiers. Hitler only has one ball (Hitler only has one egg). “Hitler, he only had one egg. The other one is in the Albert Hall (London’s concert hall). His mother, the dirty creature, cut it out when he was young,” the choir said.
The idea that the dictator’s genitals were small appears to be consistent with medical records discovered by German researchers a decade ago from Landsberg Prison, where Hitler was imprisoned after the failure of the 1923 Munich Putsch. Later, the doctor who examined him noted in his report that the prisoner had an undescended testicle in his right testicle, which had not fully descended. In neither case did he talk about micropenis. Nor can the condition be inferred from DNA results. Kallmann syndrome causes a lack of sexual desire and decreased testosterone production.
“This helps us understand a lot about his private life, or rather, the lack of a private life,” historian Alex Kay explains in the documentary. Under such conditions, he said, Hitler would have been more likely to focus on politics than on personal matters.
However, many scientists believe that exercises like the one performed in this documentary are reductionist and an oversimplification. For example, Dennis Syndercombe-Cote, professor of forensic genetics at King’s College London, told the BBC that the program’s creators had “overreached their conclusions” and that “as far as[Hitler’s]personality and personality are concerned, this exercise turned out to be completely useless.”
ethical issues
Because beyond rumors about the dictator’s Jewish origins and discussions about his genitals, the show’s creators offer an approach that raises serious ethical questions. The documentary concludes that Hitler showed a predisposition to suffer from autism, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or ADHD, based on polygenic tests that assess a person’s likelihood of developing complex diseases by comparing with the DNA of large samples of the population.
Although the authors are at pains to clarify that this predisposition does not mean that dictators developed these conditions, the fact that they have linked dictators to these conditions has scandalized groups such as Britain’s National Autism Society, which has described the program as a “cheap publicity stunt.”
Both Channel 4 and production company Blink Films. They point to the opinion of experts such as Professor Simon Baron-Cohen of the Center for Autism Research at the University of Cambridge, who takes part in the documentary, and say that “people’s behavior is the product of many factors, not just their genetics, but also their environment, childhood, life experiences, upbringing, access to education, and the cultural and economic factors that surround them.”
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