In the city, Unity forfeited her intimate physical and cerebral relationship with Janos for relaxation with friends and the more transient attractions of hairdressers and dress-shops. Budapest was also attractive to them in part due to the fact that it was a city in the last days of lavish decadence where the aristocracy could still live in a style and behave in a manner that was quite impossible in the rest of Europe.
* * *
Diana and Unity had also been part of the enormous British contingent invited to attend the Berlin Olympics. They could not help but be impressed by the Games, but the social competition to meet ‘the most powerful man in the world’ was so intense that the frustrated Unity had to make do with an occasional nod, smile or wave through the fawning crowd. It proved quite impossible for her to spend any time alone with her Führer until the following, infinitely more precious event, the Wagner Festival at Bayreuth, to which the sisters were transported by chauffeur-driven Mercedes, personally provided by Hitler. He also arranged the best seats for them for both The Ring Cycle and Parsifal; tickets that money could not buy, for twenty hours of magnificent, if challenging, opera that imbued Unity with the same ecstasy with which she reacted to her Führer’s impassioned, evangelical performances. It was a reaction that was further enhanced by her appreciation of the operas’ (or musical dramas’) mythological content and monumental style. Diana, on the other hand, was bored to distraction and only got through it by drinking a great deal of champagne both beforehand and during the breaks, while also resorting to a considerable amount of snoozing.
Unity made no mention of meeting Winifred Wagner, the English-born widow of Siegfried Wagner, who ran the Bayreuth Festival with considerable skill from 1930 to 1945 and would almost certainly have been present. But by now it was becoming evident that while Winifred remained a loyal friend of the Mitford family, and was still extremely close to Hitler and sympathetic to his Nordic fantasies and racist principles, she was very jealous of Unity and vice versa, so little mention was made of the other by either protagonist.
Winifred’s humour would not have been improved by Hitler’s end of festival invitation to the Mitford girls. According to Unity:
In Bayreuth a message came that the Führer wanted us to return with him on his private train, so they came rushing along to pack for us, and get us on board. Thousands of people were shouting ‘Heil! Heil!’ all alongside the track and we didn’t sleep a wink in the excitement.
* * *
In September 1936 the Mitfords were once again represented at the Nazi Party Rally. Not merely as friends or sympathisers, but in conspicuous celebration of their elevated position as full blown VIP guests of the Führer himself. Initially they had been seated in the third row, but Hitler soon had them moved. By the following afternoon, Tom, Diana and Unity, her friend Mary, and even Janos, had been re-seated in the front row of the Congress Hall to listen to Hans Frank, the Nazi lawyer who was to become governor of Poland; Otto Dietrich; and Max Amann, the publisher of Mein Kampf and the Völkischer Beobachter.
The celebrations continued each night as they were invited to a different function, including a bivouac dinner given by and for the SS, who dined at long tables in a huge tent, while their band played and the men sang. Unity was in her element; dashing between the official host, Himmler, to Streicher, Graf Helldorf, the chief of the Berlin police (a dangerously powerful man), to Gauleiter Wagner (mayor of Munich) and many others.
It was hardly surprising that such super-heated socialising would result in some ‘frayed nerves’, which in turn led to Unity having a flaming row with Mary. The altercation was caused by jealousy concerning her friend’s closeness to Janos who, if truth be known, would probably have been just as happy being ‘closer’ to Unity’s brother, Tom, with whom he had long enjoyed a close physical relationship; something Unity must have been aware of!
On the last day, unconsciously or otherwise, Hitler contributed yet further to Unity’s nervous tension by arranging to have her seated in his reserved stand to watch the march-past. Unfortunately, she once again found herself on the seat next to Eva Braun.
There was no record of their conversation and it is more than likely that they cut each other dead! It was said Eva believed the reason for Hitler’s interest in Unity was the result of her similarity to his niece, Geli, who had committed suicide in 1931. By 1936 Eva had apparently been suffering from some degree of insecurity concerning their relationship, but this situation had improved considerably when Hitler installed her in the Berghof near Berchtesgaden in the Bavarian Alps.
In her diary, Eva, who possessed an extremely slim, athletic body, displayed an unusually spiteful side to her character by explaining, in words to the effect:
Herr Hoffmann lovingly and tactlessly informs me that he (Wolfie) has found a replacement for me. She is known as Walküre and looks the part. Including her legs. But these are the dimensions he prefers. If this is true, though, he will soon make her lose thirty pounds, through worry, unless she has a gift for growing fat in adversity.
* * *
For Diana’s Berlin wedding on 6 October 1936, some three years after her divorce from Bryan Guinness and the transferral of her affections to Oswald Mosley, both she and Unity were the houseguests of the Goebbels family, while Mosley stayed with two of his friends in the Hotel Kaiserhof. A brief account of the wedding apparently survived in Unity’s diary:
Frau Dr., Diana and I drive to Hermann Göringstrasse about 11.30, I in my car to Kaiserhof to pick up Leader … to Hermann Göringstrasse. The Führer and Doktor [Goebbels] arrive at 02.30 … the Standesbeamte [Registrar] performs the ceremony. Bill [Allen] and I are witnesses. All sit and talk afterwards, then Frau Dr. and I drive to Schwanenwerder [the Goebbels’ home], the others follow, the Führer last. Lunch there … then an interpreter arrives and the Führer and the Leader go off and talk alone …
According to Oswald Mosley:
Frau Goebbels, who was a friend of Diana’s, helped to arrange the marriage and after the ceremony she gave a luncheon for us at her villa near Wannsee. Hitler was a guest. From this incident arose the rumours that Hitler had been my best man, while in fact this duty was performed by an English ex-officer of the 10th Hussars who accompanied me.
Later that evening, Hitler celebrated the occasion by entertaining Diana and Mosley at dinner in the Reichskanzlei, with Joseph Goebbels and his wife and other members of the Nazi hierarchy among the guests. Following the dinner, Hitler set off back to Munich on his train, taking Unity with him. It would be the last time Mosley and Hitler were to meet.
It was said that his decision to marry Diana well beyond the gaze of his English supporters was the result of Mosley’s fear that his remarrying after the death of such a hugely admired wife would compromise his popularity as a political leader. It seems more likely to have been the result of his fear that the change in his status from single to married may have had a detrimental effect on his philandering. The press remained silent and very few people knew of the marriage until it was publicly announced two years later when The Daily Telegraph and the News Chronicle both broke the story on 28 November 1938.
The marriage certainly had a positive effect on Lord and Lady Redesdale’s relationship with Mosley. It was all too predictable that while his charm would result in Sydney becoming a close and personal friend, David, apparently, remained somewhat disapproving. However, Lord Redesdale would doubtless have gained some satisfaction from the fact that it was his Christian name that very nearly forestalled the whole ghastly business.
Apparently there had been a little contretemps beforehand. When Diana was in the registrar’s office making the preliminary arrangements, she had been required to give all her personal family details, including the names of her parents. David’s Christian name had made the official look up sharply, because in Germany David is regarded as an exclusively Jewish name, thus indicating that the union may be contravening the Nuremberg Laws against marriage between Jews and gentiles. The adjutant ac
companying Diana assured him that there was no problem, explaining that in England the name David could, and was, often used by ‘Aryans’.
* * *
Unity now lived in Munich almost permanently, only returning to England for brief periods of time. She still socialised with English acquaintances who were in residence or visiting Munich, but most of her waking hours were spent either in the company of Hitler, waiting for him to arrive, or submitting to his divine power through the loins of his Storms.
Diana also joined Unity and Hitler when she visited Munich, even taking lunch with them at his apartment. But her relationship with the Führer developed mainly in Berlin, where Unity seldom went. Whenever Diana arrived, increasingly by aeroplane, she would telephone the Chancellery to announce her arrival at the Kaiserhof Hotel.
Because Hitler was an insomniac who seldom went to bed before two or three o’clock in the morning, their meetings usually took place at somewhat unsocial hours. The rendezvous were said to have been regarded with deep suspicion by British intelligence, but in truth, while they kept a file on Diana there was little in it of any consequence, apart from gossip concerning her relationship with Mosley; there was certainly no evidence that she was ever approached for information or for any justification for her visits to Germany. But this was in the days when the understaffed, wildly inefficient MI5 had considerable difficulty describing itself as an intelligence agency. At that time it was also considered quite unthinkable that a member of the privileged classes could possibly be involved in anything that would be a threat to national security.
So, it is doubtful that, at the time, the authorities would have been aware of the British Union of Fascists’ attempts to raise funds by starting a German-based radio station to be beamed at the United Kingdom. With her Nazi connections and seductive physical attraction, Diana was the obvious person to try and secure permission for the establishment of such a radio station. Despite having no knowledge or interest in radio, Diana appeared more than happy to spend extended periods of time in Germany. She would doubtless have preferred to remain in Munich with Unity and her chums, but Mosley wanted the Nazis to finance the project, and for that she needed to be in Berlin.
Despite enjoying the comfort of the Kaiserhof, arguably one of the most luxurious hotels in Europe, it is no surprise that initially Diana was both bored and lonely. Indeed, she wrote to Unity saying, ‘I did not mean to write, but I am so bored and miserable that I feel I must. I have been here a week tomorrow and I have been alone the entire time.’
However, she soon started to enjoy regular meetings with Hitler, without Unity, and could not resist rubbing it in. ‘I must tell you how sweet the Führer was. He came into the room and made his beloved surprised face, and then he patted my hand … he looks in blooming health and his skin is peeling from so much sun.’
In fact, there is no evidence that this resulted in any jealousy between the sisters, which supports my theory that their respective relationships with the Führer were entirely different. Although Diana was undoubtedly the most conventionally attractive of the sisters and, according to both Milly Howard-Brown and Gaby Bentinck, equally as promiscuous, she was, as far as Hitler was concerned, a married woman and a good deal less cerebrally attractive than Unity. Hitler’s sexual needs and greeds were anything but conventional, so his relationship with Diana involved none of the erotic fantasy and spiritual alchemy that he shared with Unity, who, because of these tastes, held far greater sexual appeal for him. As a result, his conversations with Diana would have concentrated on fascism and the English and, eventually, the financing of Mosley’s radio station.
Whether or not Oswald Mosley actually wanted a radio station subsequently became somewhat questionable. Particularly when the contents of Joseph Goebbels’ diaries were revealed and it became rather more obvious that the BUF was frantically short of funds and that Hitler’s contributions, when they finally arrived, were being used to prop up the party. To this end Mosley appeared quite prepared to use his wife’s physical attraction in order to further his political ambitions, and she likewise. As can be seen from extracts from the Goebbels diaries they were, at least initially, rather successful:
24 April 1936: (Lady Mitford) wants Germany to give £50–100k credit to the Morgan Bank … the Führer will investigate this.
5 December 1936: The Führer has now released the money arranged for Mrs Guinness. As a result there will be peace. [An undertaking not to oppose the Reich or some form of appeasement presumably having been the carrot.]
7 February 1937: Mrs Guinness wants more money. They use up a fortune and accomplish nothing.
Obviously the cracks in the arrangement were already becoming visible; while the change in address of both name and title was ominous. By the end of 1936 the BUF was nearly bankrupt and Mosley’s own finances were far from healthy. This was largely due to his personal refusal to become involved in anything so vulgar as commerce, expecting others to do so on his behalf.
* * *
One of the friends that Unity made in Munich was Henriette ‘Henny’ Hoffmann, daughter of the photographer Heinrich Hoffmann, Hitler’s friend and raconteur. After the premature death of Hoffmann’s wife, Henny accompanied her father everywhere. Hitler called her ‘mein kleiner Sonnenschein’ (my little sunshine). A year younger than Unity, she was only 17 when, in 1932, she married Baldur von Schirach, leader of the Hitler Youth movement, with Hitler and Röhm as her witnesses. There were rumours that he was a homosexual paedophile but he still managed to father four children. Meanwhile, Henny remained part of Hitler’s inner circle.
There were also rumours that Hoffmann gained his position by blackmailing Hitler after he had subjected Henny to masochistic-coprophiliacal abuse. As Hitler had friends and acquaintances assassinated for a great deal more innocent knowledge of his personal habits and background, it seems highly unlikely that anyone could have blackmailed him for very long before they met with an unfortunate end. It seems eminently more likely that the rumour was British propaganda.
Hoffmann would certainly have been in a good position to gain intimate knowledge of Hitler, having written a number of authorised books about him, including Hitler Was My Friend, in which he confirmed Hitler’s opinion of Unity as that of ‘the personification of German womanhood’. He also spoke of her desire to see ‘Britain and Germany closely united. “She often said to me, she dreamed of an impregnable and invincible alliance between the Ruler of The Seas and the Lord of The Earth; the land of her earth with the country of her hero could, she was convinced, achieve world domination”.’
Henny also wrote a book, called The Price of Glory, which was mostly about her time in Vienna at the end of the war. In it she described the Mitford sisters as ‘two pale blond English girls wearing sky-blue sweaters’ and how Hitler had explained that their peach-like complexions were the result of so much walking in the English rain; choosing not to mention their reliance on heavy make-up of the type that, it was claimed, he so abhorred in German women.
She recounted their remarkably relaxed leisure activities together and Unity’s independence:
We all used to go on picnics, and she (Unity) was on one of the biggest of these. We’d set off towards Austria, we sat on the ground, 5 or 6 girls … my father and Hitler more to one side, reading the papers … she used to drive right across Germany in her own car. She seemed very rich and rather too much the lady for me. But the back of her car was a jumble of books and pullovers all any old how.
Henny Hoffmann also claimed that Hitler had once said, ‘Unity talks so much that whenever I have anything to announce to the world, I have only to tell her.’ Again, it seems rather unlikely, unless he said it in the form of a tease. Hitler’s facilities for the dissemination of propaganda were highly sophisticated. Henny’s account of how, rather than why, Unity came to possess a pistol seems a great deal more believable:
The gun she had was a 6.35 Walther. We girls all learned to shoot, we had to swim, ski and ride too. To Hit
ler sport was all-important. I’d learnt to shoot a revolver of this calibre at the Foehring shooting range, where she [Unity] had also learnt. We were taught to handle guns, to load and clean them, and to practice target shooting. Whether Hitler actually gave her the gun I don’t know, and it would be dangerous to say so, in case it created the impression that he was trying to get her to do away with herself.
In fact, all five of the key women in Hitler’s life would either attempt or succeed in committing suicide. It is a detail that gives very considerable credence to the belief in Unity’s and Hitler’s obsession with necromancy. Not in the original occult practice of raising the dead but in the more modern concept of the control over life and death, as in the Norse legends’ glorification of death and the afterlife, and also in their beloved Wagner and, arguably, in Teutonic culture in general.
* * *
Another witness to the Mitford sisters’ behaviour in Munich was Lady Donald St Clair Gainer, wife of the then consul and friend of Gaby and Adolphe Bentinck. She remembered the somewhat bizarre situation of her husband who, like Hitler, tried to avoid having anything to do with Oswald Mosley – though for somewhat different reasons. ‘Diana was to have married Mosley in Munich. Witnesses were to have been Hitler, Goebbels and my husband. He had been dreading it, prevaricating as best he could and he was very pleased when they switched to Berlin.’
Hitler's Valkyrie Page 25