Hitler's Valkyrie

by David R L Litchfield

  She was not the only person to notice that Unity’s attitude towards Jews was becoming increasingly extreme. The writer and journalist Paul Willart’s wife, Brenda, had invited Unity to visit them on Hayling Island in the summer of 1935:

  When Unity arrived we were all out sailing. Father [Sir William Willart, one of the old-school correspondents of The Times and a great Liberal] received her and went off to do some work. Then he heard the sound of shooting and found Unity firing at targets with her pistol. He asked her why. ‘I’m practicing to kill Jews’, she said.

  * * *

  By now Unity’s friendship with Hitler and her sympathies with the Nazi Party had become newsworthy. Predictably, Sefton Delmer, the Anglo-German Berlin correspondent for the Sunday Express, who was no stranger to Hitler’s press office and had been accused of pro-Nazi sentiments, was one of the first to run her story:

  Twenty years old, pretty with shining blue eyes and flaxen hair, she seemed when I met her in Munich, to embody the ideal of a Nordic woman. Her eyes lit up with enthusiasm as she spoke to me of Hitler. ‘The entire German nation is lucky to have such a great personality at its head. I should like to remain in Germany, because I like the Germans very much.’

  Unity was also getting to know other leading members of the Nazi Party. That April, after she had met Hitler on a number of occasions, he invited her to a luncheon party. Guests included Goebbels and his wife; Ribbentrop, whom Goebbels was to accuse of having paid for his title; the Duchess of Brunswick, only daughter of the Kaiser and a great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria; plus Winifred Wagner, the composer’s English-born, widowed daughter-in-law who ran the Bayreuth Festival and was to become a close friend of the Mitfords.

  Unity was said to have been surprised when, upon her arrival, she discovered that the lunch was in honour of Mosley, who was paying a private visit to Hitler. It was to be the first of only two meetings between the two men. Apparently, Mosley ‘hoped to obtain financial support from Hitler’31; although Special Branch discovered that from 1933 to 1935 the BUF was, in fact, largely funded by the Italian fascists. Even while it was subsequently ‘claimed that Hitler and Sir Oswald had “outlined an agreement” for the peaceful cohabitation between Germany and Britain’32, there was no evidence that any funds had changed hands. However, Mosley remained optimistic.

  He was also extremely impressed by how close the relationship had already become between Unity and Hitler, and not a little jealous. Hitler, on the other hand, was claimed by Jonathan Guinness to still be unaware of the relationship between Diana and Mosley, and thus surprised by Unity’s familiarity with the British fascist leader.

  The lunch was also a somewhat grander affair than Unity had become accustomed to at the Osteria Bavaria, Hitler’s favourite restaurant, which her friend, Mary, had also grown particularly fond of:

  We always went there for lunch, it was cheap. Herr Deutelmoser, the owner, we called Domodossola, a sweet gentle old bachelor. Bobo, like everybody, loved him. The two waitresses, Fräulein Rosa and Fräulein Ella, had been there for years and years. My husband’s parents belonged to a club of painters and artists, the ‘Klub der Lebenskünstler’, whose headquarters were there, so they had their Stammtisch and came every day.

  Exactly why Hitler, a man of seemingly limitless desire for power and operatic fascist grandeur, should have chosen to spend so much time in such a small, undistinguished restaurant, in a city with no shortage of impressive restaurants and beer cellars, remained a mystery. But the fact that Schwabing was a district popular with students and artists may have appealed to Hitler’s frustrated artistic ambitions.

  Unity also lunched at Hitler’s flat with Diana and Mary Woodisse. She wrote to Sydney, ‘We had a most lovely lunch, none of which of course the Führer ate.’ She does not say why. It was certainly not because Hitler was a vegetarian or a teetotaler, as claimed. Although he rarely ate meat or drank alcohol, contrary to popular belief, Adolf Hitler was in fact particularly fond of sausages, stuffed pigeon, beer and watered wine. It was more likely that he was suffering from an upset stomach, apparently a regular occurrence. However, for his guests he would always order food to be sent round from the restaurant.

  * * *

  In June 1935, Unity initiated another story in the Sunday Express, despite Sydney claiming that a full-blown ‘press persecution’ had already commenced with their ‘She Adores Hitler’ story. There was certainly a marked lack of sympathy for Unity’s aggressive anti-Semitism – a reaction that many found somewhat reassuring. It was also difficult to believe that the letter that Unity, with the encouragement of her friend Streicher, penned to Der Stürmer, had not been written with the sole intention of publicising the Mitford name and their political sympathies in the British press:

  Dear Stürmer

  … the English have no notion of the Jewish danger. English Jews are always described as ‘decent’. Perhaps the Jews in England are more clever with their propaganda than in other countries. I cannot tell, but it is a certain fact that our struggle is extremely hard. Our worst Jews work only behind the scenes. They never come into the open, and therefore we cannot show them to the British public in their true dreadfulness. We hope, however, that you will see that we will soon win against the world enemy, in spite of all his cunning. We think with joy of the day when we shall be able to say with might and authority: England for the English! Out with the Jews! With German greeting, Heil Hitler!

  Unity Mitford.

  P.S. If you find room in your newspaper for this letter, please publish my whole name. I want everyone to know that ‘I am a Jew hater’.

  Diana was said to have regarded Unity’s outburst ‘with the eye of one accustomed from the nursery onwards to Unity’s headstrong convictions and her desire to shock. Diana was neither alarmed, nor outraged, nor even mildly disgusted; it was, she thought, “a piece of silliness. A wild thing to say”33.’ Like Mosley, Diana was far more concerned with her social life than any real commitment to political beliefs, and while she no doubt agreed with everything Unity had to say, she also had many, socially important Jewish friends whom she had no wish to provoke. But she certainly didn’t see fit to contradict or excuse her sister’s opinions.

  The comings and goings of the Mitfords and their friends continued unaffected. But while the opportunity of being introduced to the Führer gave Unity a considerable cachet and added immeasurably to Munich’s attraction, it presumably only did so for those who were sympathetic to Hitler’s policies and methods.

  Sister Pam’s arrival on 14 June was jotted down in Mary’s diary. Pam was with the Heskeths and Billa Cresswell, now married to the economist Sir Roy Harrod. Lady Harrod said: ‘We had driven along the Rhine, through Wiesbaden to Munich, in three cars, Roger Hesketh’s, his sister Joan’s, and Pam’s. Cuthbert Hesketh and a footman called John were also with us’.34

  They also brought with them flashes of humour, a somewhat rare commodity at the time; even amongst the Mitfords, who had perhaps never been quite as amusing as they thought they were, and were now anything but. Certainly, there was little to match Lady Harrod’s brilliant flash of self-promoted wit:

  For two days we stayed at the Vierjahreszeiten. Pam rang Unity up and she came round to see us. We were all five sitting in the foyer of the hotel, and Unity was looking at her watch all the time as she was going to meet Hitler. She was on tenterhooks, she didn’t seem too sure of him. It was the year of the Jubilee and I had on a check cotton dress, red and white with a round collar. I’d got buttons covered with Union Jacks from Woolworths. The conversation turned to patriotism and Bobo said to me, ‘Would you think of joining the National Socialist Movement?’ I answered, ‘I would if I could get the buttons’.

  Another rare moment of humour concerned Unity’s reported conversation with Hitler when he asked, ‘What is your father’s name?’ Lacking the knowledge required to understand how Unity Mitford could have been legitimately sired by Lord Redesdale, he patted her hand and commiserated, ‘Mein
armes Kind’ (My poor child).

  But as their relationship developed, the humour diminished while their mutual fantasy intensified, particularly in the case of Unity’s realised erotic fantasy. This was exemplified in a statement contained in one of her letters. ‘Hitler is so kind and so divine I suddenly thought I would not only like to kill all who say things against him but also torture them.’ As a sadomasochist, Unity derived sexual pleasure from pain, both from giving and receiving it. This was confirmed by Gaby Bentinck and her friend, Marie France-Reilly. In Hitler’s case there was no evidence of such tendencies. His necromantic pleasure, of the most extreme and appalling degree, appeared to have been facilitated by his indulgence in persuading others to slaughter and torture on his behalf.

  * * *

  While the development of Unity’s relationship with Hitler was a deeply personal matter that few if any people, possibly not even her own family, fully understood, it appears Mosley may have started to take advantage of the situation in order to promote himself and his cause. Certainly, the interviews Unity gave were beginning to display a suspiciously sophisticated style and content that suggested she may have been briefed, or that the BUF press office may even have written them for her. One obvious example was published in the weekend Münchener Zeitung for 22/23 June 1935, under the title ‘Eine Britische Faschistin erzählt’ (Confessions of an English Fascist girl):

  … our anti-Semitism has called Jewry in England to account … Oswald Mosley has a military disposition, he was educated at a military college, was a combat airman in the World War, he certainly did not find his homeland brought low and conquered, as Adolf Hitler did, but for all that the country was bitterly divided … anyone who has ever heard Mosley speak knows that he is a man imbued with his sense of mission and an unshakeable belief in the victory of his cause. Oswald Mosley is our Leader, and we English fascists are behind him with the same enthusiasm as today the whole German people are behind their wonderful (herrlich) Führer. We British fascists have a lot to learn from Germany.

  The British Embassy was certainly beginning to suspect that the motif for Unity’s presence in Munich may have been more political than had previously been suggested by her friends and family, and forwarded the interview to the Foreign Office:

  You may like to know that the Münchener Zeitung of the 22 June contains an interview with the Hon Unity Mitford on the subject of Fascism in England. Miss Mitford, although only 20 years of age, appears to represent Sir Oswald Mosley in Munich, and has been living there since September … the Embassy do not seem to know about Miss Mitford’s acquaintance with the Chancellor which is very curious indeed. She is a student in Munich and it is true that her family are friends of Sir Oswald Mosley but I can’t believe she ‘represents’ him. I understand that she sees Herr Hitler very often in Munich.

  They appeared totally ignorant of Diana’s relationship with Mosley, despite the fact that there was little secret of it amongst many of the more fashionable members of London society.

  The Münchener Zeitung interview was published to coincide with a celebration on the Hesselberg, a hill outside Nuremberg and the historic site for a midsummer night (Sonnenwende) pagan celebration involving bonfires, dancing and ritual offerings of bread and ham. The Nordic god Baldur (god of peace), numerous spirits and fire were all a traditional part of the solstice celebrations. The Nazi Party exploited the festivities in which the people wearing traditional costume were also obliged to wear swastika armbands and celebrate the symbolism of people (i.e. the German people, the Volk), blood (and specifically its purity) and fire (the great cleanser).

  Afterwards, Unity proudly wrote to her mother:

  At 9.30 pm we started for the high hill … we drove in a column, seven giant black Mercedes rushing through the night, all full of men in uniform, all open, I was the only woman. When we reached the top of the hill, we marched through the crowd, band playing, between cordons of SA men with torches, to the speakers’ stand.

  This particular night had been stage-managed as a tribute to Streicher and his journal. At ten o’clock he started his rant of revenge against the Jews.

  Accompanied on the platform by his adjutant, König, Göring was also due to address the crowd but on the spur of the moment, Streicher first introduced Unity. The Fränkische Tageszeitung reported:

  We have one thing to say to those witnesses among us from England. You have no idea as yet that it is the Jew who first split our people into political parties. You still do not realise that the Jew brought political parties and strife to you too. The English people are ready for an honourable peace, but it is the Jew who does not want peace.

  The ‘Frankenführer’ then called Unity to the microphone, where she affirmed her solidarity with the German people and the struggle of Julius Streicher:

  Göring then turned to the question of Anglo-German relations and expressed Germany’s pleasure [specifically Adolf Hitler’s] at the recent declaration of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales [the future King of England]. The German ex-servicemen and the German nation cheerfully grasped the hand which had been stretched out at them [contained in an unfortunate speech he had given to members of The British Legion on the theme of old soldiers’ comradeship and alluding to his possible support of the BUF].

  The Fränkische Tageszeitung on Monday 24 June published another interview under the title ‘Miss Mitford Replies’ in which she further established her support for the BUF … ‘plenty of Englishmen, and certainly those of better stock (Rasse) can be found to subordinate themselves to one man’s leadership … at present the Mosley movement is ignored in the main papers, as once happened in Germany to the national socialists … the Jews in England were not so visibly a danger as in Germany. But Mosley very soon recognised that the Jewish danger may well work its evil way from country to country, but fundamentally it poses a danger to all the peoples of the world … for years I have been a personal friend of Mosley and so committed myself early to his political way of thinking’.

  They were hardly the words of a naïve romantic, despite Nancy’s attempts to establish her as such in the role of the somewhat vacuous Eugenia Malmains in her latest book, the satirical Wigs on the Green, and in a letter to Unity dated 29 June 1935: ‘Darling Stoneyheart, We were all very interested to see that you were the Queen of the May this year at Hesselberg [in parody of Tennyson’s, ‘The May Queen’]. Call me early, Göring dear, For I’m to be Queen of the May! Good gracious, that interview you sent us, fantasia, fantasia.’ At least Nancy recognised her sister’s propensity for fantasy.

  In the same letter Nancy also teased Unity by claiming:

  We were asked to stay with somebody called Himmler or something, tickets and everything paid for, but we can’t go as we are going to Venice and the Adriatic for our hols. I suppose he read my book and longed for a good giggle with the witty authoress. Actually he wanted to show us over a concentration camp, now why? So that I could write a funny book about them. We went to Lord Beaverbrook’s party last night, it was lovely and I told him about how Göring called you early and he roared. I must say you are a wonderful noble girl, and everyone who has read my book longs to meet you.

  Wigs on the Green was so obviously autobiographical and so aggressively critical of her family, including the thinly disguised figure of Diana, whom she described as ‘intellectually pretentious’ and ‘ambitious’, and their support of fascism, that it was said to have caused lifelong family rifts. But it was also somewhat hypocritical, as Nancy had already joined the British Union of Fascists in 1933. It also seems more than likely that while she could appreciate the humorous silliness of Mosley and her family, it didn’t affect her fascist sympathies.

  Even prior to the book’s publication, Nancy was obviously fully aware of the impact it would have within the family, particularly regarding her relationship with Diana. Though in this letter to Unity she also appeared to be amused by the challenge of faking concern:

  Darling Head of Bone and Heart of S
tone,

  Oh dear oh dear the book comes out on Tuesday.

  Oh dear, I won’t let Rodd give a party for it, or John Sutro either, who wants to.

  Oh dear I wish I had never been born into such a family of fanatics.

  Oh dear.

  Please don’t read the book if it’s going to stone you up against me …

  Oh dear do write me a kind and non-stony-heart letter to say you don’t mind it nearly as much as you expected, in fact you like it, in fact after I Face the Stars it is your favourite book even more favourite than mine comf [sic].

  Oh dear I am going to Oxford with Nardie [Diana] tomorrow, our last day together I suppose before the clouds of her displeasure burst over me. She doesn’t know yet it’s coming out on Tuesday.

  Oh dear, I have spent days trying to write her diplomatic letters about it.

  Oh dear, I wish I had called it mine uncomf now because uncomf is what I feel every time I think about it. So now don’t get together with Nardie and ban me forever or I shall die … I did take out some absolutely wonderful jokes you know and all the bits about the Captain [Mosley].

  OH! DEAR!

  In fact, Diana had already seen the book in manuscript form because the publisher, understandably fearful of a costly legal action, had persuaded Nancy to allow her to read it. Diana then suggested a ‘rash of edits’, many of which Nancy subsequently claimed to have accepted, after Diana and Unity had told Nancy they would never speak to her again if she published the book in its original form. Nancy appealed to her sisters, ‘I really can’t afford to scrap the book’, accepting that following its publication communication between the sisters remained somewhere between tense and non-existent.