Unity Mitford: Difference between revisions

English socialite best known as a devotee of Adolf Hitler

Unity Valkyrie Freeman-Mitford (8 August 1914 – 28 May 1948) was a British socialite, known for her relationship with Adolf Hitler. Both in Great Britain and Germany, she was a prominent supporter of Nazism, fascism and antisemitism, and belonged to Hitler’s inner circle of friends. After the declaration of World War II, Mitford attempted suicide in Munich by shooting herself in the head. She survived but was badly injured. She was allowed safe passage back to England but never recovered from the extensive brain damage. She died from meningitis related to the bullet in her brain.

Unity was a member of the Mitford family, and all of her siblings achieved fame and/or notoriety.

Childhood[edit]

Unity Mitford was the fifth of seven children born in London to David Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale, and his wife, Sydney (1880–1963), daughter of Thomas Gibson Bowles, MP. (The Mitford family is an aristocratic family tracing its origins in Northumberland back to the 11th-century Norman settlement of England.)

Unity Mitford was conceived in the town of Swastika, Ontario, in Canada, where her family had gold mines.^[1][2][3] Her siblings were Nancy (1904–1973), Pamela (1907–1994), Thomas (1909–1945), Diana (1910–2003), Jessica (1917–1996), and Deborah (1920–2014), later the Duchess of Devonshire. The Mitford children lived at Asthall Manor in Asthall, Oxfordshire, and Unity was educated at St Margaret’s School, Bushey.

Diana Mosley’s biographer, Jan Dalley, believes that, “Unity found life in her big family very difficult because she came after these cleverer, prettier, more accomplished sisters.”^[4] While another biographer, David Pryce-Jones, added: “If you come from a ruck of children in a large family, you’ve got to do something to assert your individuality, and I think through the experience of trying to force her way forward among the sisters and in the family, she decided that she was going to form a personality against everything”.^[4][5] It has been speculated that Unity turned to Nazism as a way to distinguish herself within the family. As Dalley states: “I think the desire to shock was very important, it was the way that she made herself special. When she discovered Nazism and discovered that it was a fantastic opportunity to shock everybody in England she’d discovered the best tease of all.”^[4][5]

Her younger sister, Jessica, with whom she shared a bedroom, was a dedicated communist.^[6] The two drew a chalk line down the middle to divide the room. Jessica’s side was decorated with hammer and sickles and pictures of Vladimir Lenin, while Unity’s was decorated with swastikas and pictures of Adolf Hitler. Dalley commented, “They were kids virtually, you don’t know how much it was just a game, a game that became deadly serious in later life.”^[4][5]

Social debut[edit]

Mitford was a debutante in 1932.^[4] That same year, her elder sister Diana left her husband to pursue an affair with Oswald Mosley, who had just founded the British Union of Fascists. Their father was furious at the disgrace and forbade any member of the family to see either Diana or “The Man Mosley”, as he termed him.^[4] Mitford disobeyed and she met with Mosley that summer at a party thrown by Diana where she was promised a party badge. Mosley’s son, Nicholas, stated that: “Unity became a very extrovert member of the party, which was her way […] She joined my father’s party and she used to turn up, she used to go around in a black shirt uniform, and she used to turn up at communist meetings and she used to do the fascist salute and heckle the speaker. That was the sort of person she was”.^[4] He adds that although his father admired Unity’s commitment, Mosley felt “She wasn’t doing him any good, because she was making an exhibition of herself.”^[4][5]

Unity and Diana Mitford travelled to Germany, as part of the British delegation from the British Union of Fascists, to the 1933 Nuremberg Rally, seeing Hitler for the first time.^[4][6] Mitford later said, “The first time I saw him I knew there was no one I would rather meet.” Biographer Anne de Courcy confirms: “The Nuremberg rally had a profound effect on both Diana and Unity. . . Unity was already, as it were, convinced about Hitler, but this turned conviction into worship. From then on, she wanted to be near Hitler as much as possible”.^[4][5]

Arrival in Germany[edit]

Mitford returned to Germany in the summer of 1934, enrolling in a language school in Munich close to the Nazi Party headquarters. Dalley notes “She was obsessed with meeting Hitler, so she really set out to stalk him.”^[4] Pryce Jones elaborates:

She set her mind on getting Hitler, and she discovered that Hitler’s movements could be ascertained. It’s one of the extraordinary things about Hitler’s daily life that he was so available to the public. You knew which café he’d be in, you knew which restaurant he’d be in, which hotel, and…