Adolf Hitler’s “English girlfriend” was bullied by Joseph Goebbels because she said she did not like Benito Mussolini, her secret diaries have revealed.
Unity Mitford, who was known as the English girlfriend of Hitler, complained to one of her sisters in a letter that she felt “set on” by the Nazi party’s chief propagandist because of her views towards the fascist Italian leader.
In 1936, Germany and Italy signed a military alliance and the two powers formed the Berlin-Rome Axis. This was followed by a state visit by Mussolini to Germany in September 1937.
In one of her unearthed diary entries, Mitford writes about a lunchtime meeting she had at Osteria Bavaria, one of Hitler’s favourite restaurants in Munich, with Hitler, Goebbels and other high-ranking officials.
On Friday, Sept 24 she wrote: “I phoned the Osteria, waitress said he is coming, drive to Osteria, the fuhrer arrives 2.15pm with Goebbels and the usuals, sends for me, he is sweet. Then we talk of Mussolini. The others set on me and I almost cried.”
Adolf Hitler allegedly used Unity Mitford to ensure the British believed he had reservations about Benito Mussolini – Fox Photos/Hulton Archive
She followed up the lunch meeting with a letter to her sister Diana, who later married Sir Oswald Mosley, the leader of the British Union of Fascists.
“I had lunch with the fuhrer the day before Il Duce came to Germany. The little doctor Goebbels was there. We had a rather stormy scene as all of them except the fuhrer set on me because I said I didn’t like Musso.”
Mitford described how she felt “bullied” and struggled to hold back tears during the incident, but was ultimately backed up by Hitler who “was perfectly sweet”.
The revelation comes following the discovery of secret diaries from the British socialite, who was the fourth child of Lord Redesdale, the peer, soldier and landowner.
Hitler allegedly used Mitford as a mouthpiece to ensure the British believed he had reservations about Mussolini, according to reports.
In other entries, In other entries, Unity Mitford reveals how Hitler had given her two signed gold swastika badges – Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo
In other entries, Mitford describes Hitler as “gay” and “amazing”, and reveals how Hitler had gifted the besotted British socialite with two signed gold swastika badges.
Her leather-bound journal, which has been found after more than 80 years and serialised by the Mail Online, revealed how not all of Hitler’s most senior confidants shared the same infatuation that Mitford and Hitler appeared to have for each other.
A number of high-ranking Nazi officials thought Hitler might “blurt out” secrets to Mitford when they were alone together, according to the outlet’s podcast series about the diaries.
In a diary entry labelled Thursday, April 27 she wrote about having tea alone with Hitler, after which he showed her around “his birthday presents”.
Unity Mitford’s trip with Hitler to Dachau concentration camp in 1938 was ‘merely an interesting excursion’ – Chronicle/Alamy Stock Photo
Lucy, sister of the writer Robert Byron, a friend of Mitford’s, recalled: “Unity came to see us just after Hitler’s birthday. They had been looking at Hitler’s presents together and she described him “in fits” over a life-sized picture some admirer had sent him.”
The present is described in the entry as a portrait of Hitler in the nude, standing on top of a diamond, while holding a sword above his head.
Before Hitler’s birthday, Mitford also wrote about how she and her friends had been in Germany on April 1 for a visit to Dachau concentration camp.
Following the annexation of Austria and the Sudetenland in 1938, more than 11,000 Jews were sent to Dachau, alongside Roma travellers and political opponents of the Nazis.
By the end of the war the death toll will exceed 32,000, one-third of them Jews. For Mitford, Dachau was described as “merely an interesting excursion”.
Unity Mitford wrote in her journal that ‘little doctor Goebbels’ was at the meeting with Mussolini and ‘bullied’ her at a lunch meeting – Bettmann
When Britain declared war with Germany, Mitford was so distraught that she shot herself in the head in Munich’s English Garden park. Hitler reportedly paid for the 33-year-old’s treatment after the suicide attempt. But she was left brain-damaged, with the bullet lodged in her skull. She returned to Britain and died in 1948.
The Mail said Mitford’s journal had been subjected to handwriting, ink and paper authenticity tests by experts to avoid a repetition of the 1983 “Hitler diaries” debacle. Stern magazine and The Sunday Times were duped into publishing forged journals supposedly written by the Nazi leader.
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