Martin Borrman
I'm related to Martin Borrman, Hitler's private secretary.
A few years ago at a family get-together for Thanksgiving I asked my grandma if we were related to anyone famous or had any dark secrets, and this is the ball she dropped on me. I don't know whether to think it's kinda neat or if it's something I shouldn't brag about.
A curse from God.....
My great aunt and my great uncle were married for 6 years before they had kids. My uncle was always very sickly, he also always wanted to be a father. In my religion, which pushed people to procreate post-genocide (Jews), not being able to have kids was considered a curse from God. At the time, if you couldn't have kids, it was always the woman's fault.
We just found out recently that my great aunt stepped out on her husband exactly two times. It was with a family friend who was older, had already raised a family of their own. They apparently held up a sheet so they couldn't see each other's faces, and did the deed. Each time resulted in a pregnancy. They went back to being good friends following the second conception.
We now know that my great uncle had a health condition that upped his chances of infertility tenfold, but they were unaware of that fact back in the 1950s. He died never knowing, but he loved those kids something fierce his whole life. He was an amazing father. My aunt did something that some may find reprehensible, but she wanted to give her husband the family he always wanted.
When in Cali...
When the woman I thought was my mom died (was actually my older aunt), I found out that she'd adopted me, after my uncle and his wife fell thru/got divorced. They had bought me from my bio parents (their brother) for $300 (drug money).
Far as I know, bio parents died from OD, hitchhiking in California. I'll never know bc I was only ever introduced to a few people from my dad's side, and they all died long ago.
All Out....
Im Happy No More GIF by AudibleGiphyI don't think we really have any, it's all out in the open. That my grandmother murdered her husband has been open knowledge for many years at this point.
Did what he did...
My grandfather killed a Nazi.
After the war ended.
With his bare hands. He was a bomber pilot. After the war ended, but before he went home, he found out about a particular nazi soldier that had assaulted several jewish girls. So he killed the guy during one of his benders. My grandfather was an angry drunk.
Suck on it dad.
My grandfather and father were Klan members.
Their house was burned to the ground when my grandfather decided to leave suddenly after coming to his senses and realizing he didn't want to live out the rest of his days as a lowlife bigot.
My dad is still racist as hell. He doesn't actively participate in the Klan but he has many tattoos that he's proud to show off, and he drops more N-bombs than anyone I know. This has OF COURSE ruined our relationship.
You can imagine his chagrin when he came to the realization that he put a sour taste in my mouth when it comes to white men, and that's why most of my boyfriends have been POC. To put it simply, the majority (but not all... blanket generalizations are bad) of white men just turn me off. There are, of course, white guys who, much like myself, are just trying to escape the stigma of racism and unbridled privilege, and be better than our fathers before us.
He almost pooped his pants when I introduced him to my current boyfriend, who is a BEAUTIFUL 6'6 Oglala Lakota warrior of a man. My dad was of course, as most racists are, too much of a coward to say anything to him, for fear of having Badger's size 15 boot shoved up his racist fool. I grinned like an idiot throughout the whole introduction. Suck on it dad.
I hope he'll be happy having beautiful indigenous grandchildren.
Grandpa Down
My great-grandpa was an unrepenting nazi who kept voting for nazi parties until his death in the early 70s. My grandma has never come to terms with it and doesn't like to talk about it.
On a lighter note, my great-uncle may actually be my paternal grandpa. He looks like my dad but 25 years older, and he supposedly had an affair with my grandma around the time my dad was conceived.
The Black Sheep
My dad was abused a lot as a child. Emotionally and physically. One day he snapped. He grabbed a gun and shot and killed his stepfather. The bullet then ricocheted and hit his mom in the spine, paralyzing her. I never knew what had happened until a few years ago. We were drinking and Bohemian Rhapsody came on. He started crying and told me about it. I finally understood why my grandma was in a wheelchair and my dad was the black sheep of the family.
Party Over....
Frustrated Clint Eastwood GIFGiphyTwo of my great grandfathers were nazis. One participated in the war as a pilot and the other one owned a factory and probably enslaved some kz inmates but I'm not entirely sure about that. They were however both members of the NSDAP (the nazi party).