Did Hitler marry a Jew?

Incredible proposition ... did Adolf Hitler's long-time lover and (briefly) wife Eva Braun have Jewish ancestry? Source: News Limited

NAZI leader Adolf Hitler's wife Eva Braun may have been of Jewish descent, according to DNA analysis carried out for a British television documentary.

The anti-Semitic German leader responsible for the Holocaust married his long-term lover Braun shortly before they committed suicide in a Berlin bunker in 1945.

But the program to be screened by Britain's independent Channel 4 on Wednesday said hair samples show Braun may have had Jewish ancestry herself.

Scientists commissioned by the Dead Famous DNA program tested hair said to have come from a brush used by Braun and found at Hitler's mountain retreat.

In DNA from the hair, they found a sequence passed down through the maternal line — haplogroup N1b1 — which was "strongly associated'' with Ashkenazi Jews.

Controversial ... groundbreaking DNA tests on a hair from a brush show Eva Braun had Jewish ancestors. Source: Supplied

Ashkenazi Jews dispersed into central and eastern Europe in the early Middle Ages, and some converted to Catholicism in Germany in the 19th century.

"This is a thought-provoking outcome. I never dreamt that I would find such a potentially extraordinary and profound result,'' presenter Mark Evans said.

The hairs came from a monogrammed hairbrush found at Hitler's Bavarian residence by American army intelligence officer Paul Baer, a US 7th Army captain, who had privileged access to the property and took a number of items from Braun's private apartment.