London, March 30 (IANS) Adolf Hitler's closest surviving relatives are leading a quiet life in an Austrian village where they rear cows, a media report said.

Fortyfive-year-old Gerhard Koppensteiner, whose grandfather was the dictator's first cousin, plays down the connection as he quietly looks after his cows in a village located in northern Austria.

Gerhard's family are among the Hitler's nearest relatives because he had no children.

"This has haunted my family all our lives. It is a terrible burden. I grew up knowing I was related to him. How do you learn to live with that," The Sun quoted him as saying.

"I don't want them (his son and daughter) to live in the shadow of this man. We don't talk about him at home."

His father, who was called Adolf, was just six years old when Hitler died in his Berlin bunker in 1945.

Gerhard said: "This curse has followed him his whole life."

One of his neighbours said: "You can't hold Hitler's crimes against them."