Bet you didn't know Alia's German great-grandfather ran anti-Hitler newspaper
Bollywood actor Alia Bhatt, who is busy promoting her film Jigra, recently dropped some interesting details about her family history. In a candid interview with The Lallantop, she revealed that her maternal great-grandfather was a German who led a rebellion against Adolf Hitler through the press. "My maternal grandmother is from Germany...Her father, my great-grandfather, was running an underground newspaper against Hitler," she said.
Bhatt's great-grandfather was imprisoned for his actions
Bhatt's mother, Soni Razdan, was born to a German mother and an Indian father. Razdan has previously revealed that her grandfather was imprisoned and put into a concentration camp at one point for his actions against Hitler. In an earlier interview with The Indian Express, she shared more about her family's history in Germany before World War II and their eventual move to England.
Razdan's family lived in Berlin before Hitler's rise to power
Detailing her family's history, Razdan reportedly said, "My mother's side of the family is from Germany. They lived in East Berlin, just before Hitler came to power. My grandfather, Karl Hoelzer, ran an underground newspaper against Hitler." "He was not Jewish but he was against fascism. He was imprisoned and put into a concentration camp... Finally, he was released but was asked to leave Germany."
Bhatt's father also spoke about her German roots
Bhatt's father, filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, has also spoken about his daughter's German roots. When her film Highway premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival, he shared on X/Twitter: "Many years ago, in 1929 in fact, Alia's grandmother was born in Berlin. Yes, she's German." "Alia's great grandfather was running an underground newspaper against Hitler... So Alia's grandmother & her mother walked across the border to Czechoslovakia and found sanctuary from persecution as refugees in England."
