EXCLUSIVEHow Hitler's English moll wanted to HANG the Prime Minister. Revealed for the first time in her diary, her treasonous poison pen messages as her beloved Fuher set Europe ablaze
- LISTEN: Hitler's English Girlfriend: The Secret Diary of Unity Mitford, the Daily Mail's unmissable new podcast series
- PART ONE: 'The Fuhrer was heavenly… he is an angel.'
- PART TWO: 'Towards attractive women, hitler behaved as a 17-year-old...'
- PART THREE: 'The Fuhrer makes me drink champagne and I get drunk...'
- PART FOUR: 'Streets full of Nazis. All salute me...'
Everyone’s talking about the growing likelihood of war, and Unity Mitford is becoming fretful. Back in London for a few weeks, she shops for new clothes, plays Rummy incessantly and distracts herself with Hollywood films (Shirley Temple’s are a big favourite).
She’s already decided to kill herself if war breaks out. But she refuses to brood on the unthinkable; instead she’s all but convinced herself that a brave new world awaits, in which Britain and her beloved Nazi Germany have overcome their differences.
In her mind, Unity sees herself as a key figure in preventing the war. After all, no other English person knows Hitler better, or has the privileged access to him that she does. And hasn’t he always protected her? Hasn’t he always assured her of his genuine love for England?
While Britons are stockpiling tins and learning to use gas masks, Unity – still switching to red ink to record her encounters with the Fuhrer – prepares for a rosy future in Munich...
Diary, 1939
Monday, January 2: Go shopping at John Lewis & Selfridges. Muv & Nancy [mother and eldest sister] & I lunch. A Telegram from the FUHRER arrives.
Thursday, January 12: Meet Decca [younger sister Jessica] Marble Arch. Dolcis. I buy evening shoes. On to German Embassy party, parents there.
Friday, January 27:[In the hope of seeing Hitler, Unity flies to Berlin for three days] Croydon airport. Arr. Berlin 9.15. Phone Reichskanzlei [Hitler’s Reich chancellery]. Bed.
Winston Churchill replaced Neville Chamberlain as prime minister in May 1940
Sunday, January 29: Hope & hope the Reichskanzleiwill ring up but they don’t. Unhappy & lonely. Sit & read paper. Lunch. Go for a walk 2.45-3.45. Crowds of people. Nice day. Feel quite miserable. When I return, am told to ring up the Reichskanzlei, do so, am told to come over at 4. So happy. Rush up & change. Have tea alone with the Fuhrer. He is perfectly heavenly, in his sweetest mood. We sit & chat till after 6, then he shews me over the new Reichskanzlei which is wonderful, then I leave. Am perfectly happy.
Monday, January 30: To Schwanenwerder [the Goebbelses’ lakeside villa]. Visit the children. Chat with Magda all afternoon.
Sunday, February 19: [London] Decca leaves tonight for America. She rang up at lunchtime to say goodbye.
Disgusted that Britain stood by while Hitler annexed part of Czechoslovakia, Decca and her Communist husband Esmond Romilly have bought one-way tickets to New York.
Saturday, March 11: Arr. Munich 12. Drive out to Solln, find Erna at home. Unpack a bit. Erna & I drive to town, look at Atelier Wohnung [studio flat].
Unity is now living rent-free with her friend Erna Hanfstaengl in Solln, a Munich suburb, until she can find a flat of her own.
Wednesday, March 15: Hear Czecho-Slovakia [sic] has ceased to exist, at last. Just before lunch we hear on radio DEUTSCH TRUPPEN SIND IN PRAG EINMARSCHIERT [German troops have marched into Prague]. Have hair done. Supper with Erna.
The Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia is a step too far for Farve – unlike Muv, he now repudiates the Nazis.
Unity Mitford in Bavarian costume at Nuremberg, Germany, on June 6, 1938
Friday, March 17: Snowing. I listen-in to Parade in Prag, Einzug des Fuhrers in Brunn [Hitler’s entry into second-largest Czech city], then Chamberlain’s speech in Birmingham which is ridiculous.
Prime minister Neville Chamberlain condemns Hitler for the invasion, warning that Britain will resist any further German expansion.
Thursday, March 23: I drive to town to see Wohnungen [flats]. Find a perfect one but already let.
Sunday, March 26: I ring up Osteria, hear He is coming. Dress like lightning & dash to town. Osteria. Very full. The Fuhrer arrives about 2.30. He is pleased to see me, I go & sit with him, he is in a very good mood. He says he has read my[Daily Mirror] article. We talk about how awful the English Government is being. He leaves 4.30, says he will come again to-morrow[sic].
In her Mirror article, Unity says Hitler has a ‘genius’ for achieving the impossible. She adds: ‘The German army, the British Navy and the two Air Forces combined would police the world and keep “peace in our time”.’
Monday, March 27: Osteria. The Fuhrer sends for me. He is in his sweetest mood & says wonderful things about England.
Unity writes to her sister Diana, the wife of British fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley: ‘On Monday, [Hitler] held my hand most of the time & looked sweet & said “Kind [child]!” in his sympathetic way because he was so sorry about England & Germany being such enemies. However... he completely gave me faith again that it will all come right in the end.’
Thursday, March 30: I drive to town, His Wohnung [Hitler’s flat] but no sign [ie no SS guards outside]. Rudi [Erna’s friend Rudi Simolin] & I play gramophone.
German troops march into Hradcany Castle during the occupation of Prague, March 1939
Today, Chamberlain vows to declare war on Germany if Hitler invades Poland.
Saturday, April 1: Erna & I drive out to Dachau, Rudi & her father join us.
Following the German annexation of Austria and the Sudetenland in 1938, thousands of Jews have been sent to Dachau concentration camp, along with Roma travellers and political opponents. By the end of the war, the death toll there will exceed 40,000. For Unity and her friends, the camp is merely an interesting excursion.
Friday, April 7:[Austria] Arr. Bernstein [castle of Unity’s married lover, Count Janos Almasy] soon after 10. Janos is terrifically surprised to see me. We sit about all morning in boiling sun. Dinner with Janos & Marie [Janos’s wife, who’s partially paralysed].
Sunday, April 16: Alice Esterhazy [daughter of anti-Semitic Hungarian politician] says she will take Boy. [Unity feels her Great Dane will be a nuisance as she searches for a flat.]
Alice Esterhazy says of Unity: ‘The on-dit was: did she or did she not sleep with Hitler. The fact of gossiping about it gave her a cachet.’
Thursday, April 27: [Berlin] Reichskanzlei 3. Have tea alone with the Fuhrer till 4, then he shews me round his birthday presents. He has a Besprechung[meeting]with his generals so I leave 4.15.
Lucy, sister of Unity’s friend Robert Byron, recalls: ‘Unity came to see us just after Hitler’s birthday. They’d been looking at Hitler’s presents together and she described him in fits over a life-sized picture some admirer had sent him.
‘It was a portrait of him in the nude, standing upon a vast flashing faceted diamond, holding a sword which he was waving above his head… Unity also described to us how funny [Hitler] was at imitating Chamberlain.’
Tuesday, May 23: I don’t go to Turnstunde [gymnastics lesson] as I have a sore throat. Read, & do homework. [To keep herself occupied, Unity has started taking regular maths and singing lessons.]
Today, Hitler alerts army chiefs that Germany will almost certainly be invading Poland in September. Unity is kept in the dark.
Thursday, May 25: Osteria. The Fuhrer is in a sweet mood. He says he will receive Erna. I am so pleased.
Tuesday, May 30: Drive to His Wohnung but no sign. Home, sit & read. I drive to town 1.50, His Wohnung, see He is there. Osteria. The Fuhrer comes 2.15. He says Erna & I are to come 4. Wagner says they will find me a Wohnung. The Fuhrer goes 3.15. Erna & I to His Wohnung 4. I wait in hall while they talk. Then I go in & join them for tea. The Fuhrer is sweet. We leave 5.
Hitler has issued orders for a flat to be found for Unity in Munich. It’s an astonishing mark of his affection.
Thursday, June 1: Meet Rudi, we go shopping. I buy furniture etc. Erna phones from Rechbergs, asks me to go [there] because of letter about Putz [Erna has written a letter about her brother Ernst ‘Putzi’ Hanfstaengl – the former Nazi foreign press secretary – and wants Unity to hand it to Hitler.] Drive out. Discuss letter.
Monday, June 5: Rudi & I to Wohnungsamt [housing office], a young man comes with us. We drive round looking at Wohnungen [flats]. At last we find the perfect one, [flat 4 at number 26] Agnesstrasse. Get wire from Janos [Unity’s lover since 1936] to say he arrives to-morrow [sic]. Bed early.
On Hitler’s orders, his private office has offered Unity a shortlist of four flats, all seized from Jews. She inspects them all. Some of the Jewish owners are still in their homes, listening as Unity measures up their rooms and considers improvements. The two-bedroom flat she’s chosen, she writes in a letter, ‘belongs to a young Jewish couple who are going abroad’. By now, however, even Unity has to know what this means.
Tuesday, June 6: Janos’ train arr. about 7.10 [a.m.] Drive him to Regina [hotel]. Sit with him while he baths & changes.
Thursday, June 8: Fetch Janos. We go for a walk in Englischer Garten [Munich park]. Lie under the trees for a long time. Drive past Haus d. Kunst [German art museum]. [Hitler] is sitting on terrace, salutes me.
Unity’s next diary entry concerns Ernst ‘Putzi’ Hanfstaengl, Hitler’s former foreign press secretary, who had fallen out of favour and escaped to London.
Egged on by his sister Erna, Unity has decided to broach with Hitler the idea of pardoning him.
Over tea at Hitler’s flat on June 9, Unity hands him Erna’s letter. In it, Erna says she’ll go to London to persuade Putzi to come back, but she first wants a cheque for money the Nazi party owes her brother. (In fact, she has no intention of persuading Putzi to return.)
Hitler rants to Unity about the Hanfstaengls, calling them unreliable cosmopolitans, and money-grabbers. He shouts at her: ‘You have been living on a dung-heap!’
Hitler then tells Unity she can’t live with Erna for a single day longer. After all, thanks to him, she’ll soon be installed in her own flat. That very night, Unity will move out of Erna’s house in Solln and into a hotel. This marks the end of her friendship with Erna – after years of staying with her, on and off, rent-free, and dumping her belongings on her whenever she returns to England.
‘After this, they hated each other,’ Putzi says later.
Friday, June 9: I go to Osteria. The Fuhrer arrives 1.45. We sit in the garden. I ask him if I can see him alone, he tells me to come to his flat. Leaves 2.45. I drive to his flat, we have tea alone. I give him the letter, after reading a few sentences he tears it up & burns it. I am miserable at having had to give it to him but he is sweet, says he will give me furniture for my sitting room, asks whom I will bring to Parteitag[Nuremberg Nazi party convention in September]etc. I leave 5.45.
When Hitler asks whom Unity plans to bring to the Nuremberg rally, he’s deliberately misleading her. Plans are already in place to invade Poland, and no rally can take place without the army.
Tuesday, June 13:[London] Muv & I out about 9.30, in my car to John Lewis, buy stuff [material], lamps for my flat etc.
Friday, June 16: Diana & the Leader [Oswald Mosley] & I go for a walk. (I told Farve about Erna, he was horrified.)
Thursday, June 22: Drive Aunt Puss to P. Jones, she buys me things for my flat. Muv & Farve [her parents Lord and Lady Redesdale] & I to FitzRandolphs’ [farewell] cocktail party.
Sigismund FitzRandolph, head of press at the German embassy, recalls: ‘[Unity’s) views were perhaps harming the German cause more than helping it. She was going much too far... her views were ruined by being overstated.’
Friday, June 23: To Putsy’s, tell him about what happened.
Monday, June 26: Choose silver with Muv. Out again. Choose china.
Saturday, July 8: Arr. Munich 4.30. His Wohnung but no sign. Rudi comes 8.30, brings strawberries & cream.
Rudi recalls: Unity ‘was a romantic. She would act the heroine, and war would be avoided – like in a simple fairy tale.’
Monday, July 10: Buy a bed for spare room, & a mirror. Osteria. Find the FUHRER is coming. Sit with Werlin. [Hitler] comes about 2. Frau Troost also there. He leaves about 3.15. Go shopping again. Can’t get any new furniture. Bed about 9. Feel lonely.
Friday, July 14: Osteria about 1.45. The Fuhrer comes about 3. We sit in the garden. He is sweet. Says he heard from Putsy. Leaves about 4. Go for a walk along Isar Kanal in the rain till nearly 8.
Tuesday, July 18: Osteria. Hear the FUHRER had food sent to his Wohnung. Lunch. Shop a bit. His Wohnung, find He has gone. Home. Sit about. Bored. Walk to Lombardi 8.30. Supper there.
Increasingly, Unity has been spending entire days alone, out only to shop, go for walks, have her hair done or eat solo meals in restaurants.
Friday, July 21: To my flat in Agnesstrasse, where [I] meet the Hausbesitzer [landlord], electrician, painter, valuer, etc. Arrange things for about an hour. Shopping with [Rudi]. Supper Lombardi. Go for a walk. Thunderstorm. Bed 9.
Sunday, July 23: Get up fairly late. Sit about & read. Lombardi 7 for supper. Sit in car & read, listen to radio. Drive to His Wohnung, see He is here. Home.
Monday, July 24: Shop a bit. His Wohnung, see He is there. Hairdresser. His Wohnung, see He has left. Home. Thunderstorm.
Thursday, July 27:[Bayreuth for Wagner festival] Am fetched 1.30, to lunch with the Fuhrer. Also at lunch – Frau Wagner, Leys, etc etc. I sit next the Fuhrer. The others leave after lunch. I stay on & talk to the Fuhrer, & he is sweet. Leave about 3. One of His cars drives me to ‘Parsifal’.
Gerhard Engel, also at that lunch – though he dates it the 28th in his diary – writes: ‘Unity was babbling on about the scandal of England’s armaments. The approaches to London had only 8 anti-aircraft batteries for total protection – this information she had from a cousin of hers (possibly Winston Churchill’s son Randolph). The Army had outdated equipment, hardly enough for two divisions, and England was in no position to wage war. Only the Navy came in for her praise... Hitler was struck by the remarks. We had to check them out, and found out this was more or less the truth.’
Unity’s revelations – had the British government known what she was saying – could well have been construed as treason.
Sunday, July 30: Just as Diana [who arrived on Friday] and I have finished lunch, SS man comes to bring us to the FUHRER. He drives us home. Change quick. To the Fuhrer’s 1.30. Have second lunch with him. In one of His cars to ‘Walküre’.
Wednesday, August 2: As [Diana and I] are lunching SS man comes to invite us to the FUHRER. Home. Change. Go to the Fuhrer’s 1.30. The usual Umgebung[entourage]. After lunch Diana & I sit with the Fuhrer alone. He is sweet, but he says, ‘Wenn kein Wunder geschieht, sehe ich alles sehr schwarz. Und an Wunder glaube ich nicht.’ [‘Unless a miracle happens, I see everything very black. And I don’t believe in miracles.] Very upset. We leave 3.15. In one of His cars to ‘Gotterdammerung’.
Thursday, August 3: Munich, arr. 3.20. Thunderstorm. Begin autobiography. Lombardi 7 for supper. Home. Go on with autobiography.
Friday, August 4: Osteria 1.30. The FUHRER comes 3. He is fascinating about his new buildings. Leaves 4.30. I go with Werlin’s chauffeur to get petrol, as one can’t buy it.
Saturday, August 5: To Agnesstrasse. Undo parcels & cases, arrange things. Furniture comes. Osteria 1.30. The Fuhrer comes 2.30. Wagner also there. The Fuhrer is sweet. Leaves 3.30. Buy cheap bookcase.
Although she doesn’t know it, this is the last time Unity has lunch with Hitler.
Monday, August 7: To Agnesstrasse. Unpack, arrange things. Go out shopping. Unpack & arrange all evening. Bed about 9. My 1st night in my new flat. So exciting.
Behind her bed, Unity has hung two large swastika flags, crossed over each other, with their ends folded down on her pillow. On her night-table, she’s propped a photo of Hitler.
Tuesday, August 8: [Unity’s 25th birthday] Putzfrau [cleaning lady] comes 8. Furniture arrives 9. Shop a bit. Postamt [post office] to have telephone entsperrt [connected]. Home. Phone not yet working. Back to Postamt, inspector tells me I can’t have it yet. To Brigadefuhrer. He telephones inspector. Home. Phone working. Hausmeister [caretaker] does lights etc. Bed arrives. Books arrive. Unpack books.
Wednesday, August 9: Putzfrau comes early. I potter about in the Wohnung. Out shopping. Visit Max [Ettinger]. Sit about waiting for Janos – arrives late. Janos & I home to Wohnung. Bed. Sleep 2.
Friday, August 11: Putzfrau 8.30-9.30. Chat to Janos. I to hairdresser. Janos visits Erna in meanwhile. Start 4 for Seeseiten. We quarrel on the way [Janos is almost certainly insisting she leave Munich]. I make scrambled eggs. Sleep 2.30.
Saturday, August 12: I wake Janos, we chat for a bit, he gets up. Rudi fetches him, they start for Stuttgart about 8.30. I go back to bed. Shop a bit.
All four episodes of the Daily Mail's new podcast, Hitler's English Girlfriend: The Secret Diary of Unity Mitford, are available now
Sunday, August 13: Stay in bed all morning. Lombardi 1.30 for lunch. Chat to Acting Consul Gen. & his wife there. Drive out to Solln 3, get my trunks from Josefa [Erna’s servant]. Wait half an hour at Bayr. Aut. Garage for 10l of petrol. To Bahnhof [station], Janos’s train waits 9.45-10.5. We chat.
Determined to snatch a final few minutes with Janos, Unity meets him at the station as his train pulls in from Stuttgart. They have just 20 minutes together before his next train leaves for Vienna.
Monday, August 14: Have police photos done. Shop a bit. Osteria. Pick up the Wrede twins there [Princesses Carmen and Edda, socialite identical twins], drive them to my flat, shew it to them. Out shopping 6. Order bed etc.
Wednesday, August 16: William Douglas Home rings up. [Drive] W.D. Home & his friend [clergyman Peter Beresford-Peirse] round.
Beresford-Peirse recalls meeting Unity – an ‘attractive blonde’ – that day at their hotel. ‘She came into the hall, clicking her heels and saying Heil Hitler. She drove us past Hitler’s flat several times, saying she didn’t think he was there. She was holding forth about Hitler being the saviour of mankind.’
Friday, August 18: Hot sunny day. Polizei for Aufenthalts bewilligung [police for residence permit]. Have hair done. Osteria. Change into bathing suit, sit on balcony in the sun & read. Buy a table, bring it home. Potter about.
Saturday, August 19: Out shopping. Osteria. Make beds for the girls. Edda & Carmen [Wrede twins] arr. about 4.30. Sofa & chair arrive. They unpack & bath.
Princess Carmencita Wrede recalls: ‘In the sitting room [Unity] had a writing table, and in one of its drawers a little silvered revolver. She took it out and waved it around, saying, “When I’m obliged to quit Germany, I will kill myself.” We were scared by the way she handled the gun and my sister told her to put it back in the drawer.’
Tuesday, August 22: Joe Kennedy [24-year-old elder brother of John F. Kennedy, future US president] rings up. Change. Meet him Regina [hotel] 4.30, we go to Haus d Kunst [German art museum] & have tea on terrace. Home. Hear the wonderful news about the pact with Russia [non-aggression pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union].
Joe Kennedy’s father, also Joe, is US ambassador to Britain and in favour of appeasement. Joe junior, who’ll be killed in the war, writes to his father: “[Unity] is not at all pretty, with very bad teeth and terribly fat, however with a certain fine Aryan look.
‘She... seems to be in a state of high nervous tension... She never refers to [Hitler] as Hitler but always as the Fuhrer and looked at me rather funnily when I called him Hitler as if I was taking his name in vain.
‘Why should England want Eastern Europe? It is rightly German (she says)... England can have its empire. Even though England got beaten in battle the Germans would give England its empire for they could not run the world by themselves... It would be much better if the English got defeated.
‘She is the most fervent Nazi imaginable, and is probably in love with Hitler.’
Wednesday, August 23: Max comes, with butter. I go shopping, buy carpet etc. Carmen & Edda & I lunch Osteria. Home. I quarrel with Edda.
Friday, August 25: Visit the consul & chat to him. Drive the girls to the station, they leave for Berlin [to train as wartime nurses]. Tidy up the flat. Osteria. Shop. ‘Vogues’ & ‘Harper’ arrive. Listen in to English news.
Wolstan Weld Forester, the British vice-consul, tells Unity all the British are leaving and advises her to go. When she refuses, he says: ‘Then you no longer have the protection of Great Britain.
Unity replies: ‘I have the much greater protection of the Fuhrer.’
Consul: ‘You’re as childish as the man who told me he had to wait because he had tickets for “Tristan”.
Unity: ‘Oh, who’s he? I must get to know him.’
Saturday, August 26: Hear Max [Ettinger] was called up in the night.
Monday, August 28: Get Bengin Ausweis [ID card]. Go shopping. Consulate but Consul not there. Osteria. Change into bathing suit, sunbathe on balcony. Fill in ration Schein [permit]. Town to buy stuff. Join Wagner & others for tea. Listen to news.
Tuesday, August 29: Frau Zaspel comes with my curtains, I watch her put them up. Visit the consul, chat to him. Shop a bit. Sunbathe on balcony & read. Wait for post but it doesn’t come. I go for a walk 7.30-9.30, round by His Wohnung [Hitler's flat].
Mrs Weld Forester, the vice consul’s wife, thinks Unity was ‘in terror’ that day because ‘at the last, there was no getting her out [of Germany]. She was in floods of tears. It was too late to do anything for her. My husband told me: “It was terrible to see her.”’
Although there’s no corroboration for this, it seems Unity’s had a sudden change of heart and wants to go home.
Mrs Weld Forester adds: ‘In a restaurant, for a meal, we'd catch a glimpse of her. You’d see her sitting by herself. She looked as if she couldn’t get out of her chair – it was so awful. We hated to see her in such distress.’
Wednesday, August 30: To bank, find 1500 marks have been sent for me. Shop a bit. Sunbathe on balcony & read. Osteria. Lie on sofa & read all afternoon.
Friday, September 1: Hear on radio that Danzig [Polish port] has been incorporated in the Reich [the Nazi invasion of Poland has begun]. Out shopping in car. Hear the FUHRER’s speech in my car. Such a wonderful speech. Home. Putzfrau comes. Sunbathe on balcony. Hear rebroadcast of the FUHRER’s speech. Osteria 1.45 for lunch. Home. Change into bathing suit, sunbathe on balcony & read. Get letters from Diana and Janos. Write replies. Dress, walk to Jahreszeiten Keller, dine there. Verdunklung [blackout]. Walk home in complete dark. Listen in to English news.
This is Unity’s final entry in her five-year diary.
Saturday, September 2: Unity finishes her letter to Diana, in which she writes: ‘It seems quite hopeless doesn’t it. I wonder if this letter will get through.
‘I think Chamberlain & co are criminals & should be hanged… I tried to ring you up last night but was a few hours too late – no more calls to England allowed.
‘I fear I shan’t see the Fuhrer again… When the war is over, do try to get Boy (Unity’s dog) back, I am so worried about him. Baby knows where he is.’
Unity also writes a letter to her parents, sending ‘particular love to Decca’ – her Communist sister, now living in the US.
Sunday, September 3: That morning, Unity phones Rudi – who’s away in Salzburg – to say war is now certain. Rudi is alarmed as Unity told her a few weeks ago that she’d shoot herself if she couldn’t stop the war.
‘I spoke to her for a long time on the telephone,’ says Rudi.
‘I was terrified for her. I urged her not to do anything until (Monday, when Rudi was due back) and we would think what should be done for the best. I beseeched her to wait.’
- Edited by Corinna Honan
- Sources for notes include: Unity Mitford – A Quest, by David Pryce-Jones; The Mitfords – Letters Between Six Sisters, edited by Charlotte Mosley’ Valkyrie: Gender, Class, European Relations, and Unity Mitford’s Passion For Fascism, unpublished thesis by Kathryn Steinhaus; Take Six Girls, by Laura Thompson; Wait For Me, Memoirs Of The Youngest Mitford Sister, by Deborah Devonshire; Hostage to Fortune: The Letters Of Joseph P. Kennedy, edited by Amanda Smith.
- All four episodes of the Daily Mail's new podcast, Hitler's English Girlfriend: The Secret Diary of Unity Mitford, are available now
