Long-lost secret diaries of ‘Hitler’s English girlfriend’ are today unveiled by the Mail.
Unity Mitford, a member of the renowned Mitford sisters, has unintentionally provided a wealth of new information through her personal leather-bound journal. This journal sheds light on her relationship with history’s most infamous dictator, whom she adored despite his notorious reputation.
Known for her admiration towards the Nazi leader, Unity expressed her deep affection for him in her elegant handwritten entries. For an exclusive look into Unity’s diary excerpts discussing her fascination with Hitler, visit MailOnline.
Decades after her diaries were lost to historians, their discovery by the Mail is set to cause a global sensation.
Despite facing backlash for her unwavering support of Hitler, Unity remained devoted to him, forging a bond closer than any other British individual. Throughout five years leading up to the outbreak of World War II, Unity chronicled the intimate details of her interactions with the dictator in her daily journal.
This precious record has never been seen before, but now in a world exclusive the Mail is able to reveal it to the public for the first time. It will be showcased in a landmark series in print, on MailOnline and via gripping podcast episodes debuting today, offering a treasure trove to historians.
The diaries are packed with intimate and horrifying revelations about Hitler and the Englishwoman who became his sycophantic confidante.
While plotting global carnage, Hitler was said to have ‘behaved as a 17-year-old’ around the 6ft statuesque blonde beauty.
Adolf Hitler dines with Unity Mitford. Long-lost secret diaries of ‘Hitler’s English girlfriend’ are today unveiled by the Mail
In a world publishing coup, the aristocrat’s leather-bound journal reveals fresh insights into the dictator widely reviled as the most evil man in history – whom she worshipped
All four episodes of the Daily Mail’s new podcast, Hitler’s English Girlfriend: The Secret Diary of Unity Mitford, are released today
Celebrated historian Lord (Andrew) Roberts said: ‘It is extremely rare in modern times for the diaries of a well-known figure of the Nazi movement to be discovered and published, and the Daily Mail deserves to be congratulated on this remarkable scoop.’
It is 42 years since the infamous ‘Hitler diaries’ debacle, when German magazine publisher Stern and its British partner The Sunday Times were duped into publishing journals supposedly written by the Nazi leader which were immediately exposed as audacious forgeries.
The Mail has taken every precaution to establish that the newly discovered Mitford volume is not a hoax, commissioning meticulous tests by renowned experts in handwriting, ink and paper to prove its authenticity.
One of the world’s foremost scholars on Unity, the historian and her biographer David Pryce-Jones, said: ‘I am confident they are genuine.’
Unseen for 80 years, Unity’s diaries span 1935 to 1939 and chronicle an extraordinary 139 meetings with Hitler, whose monstrous regime murdered six million Jews in the Holocaust. A virulent Nazi worshipper, the Honourable Unity Mitford venerated the vile dictator whom she unfailingly referred to as ‘the Führer’ or ‘He’ and ‘Him’ as if he were a god.
Also starting today, an exclusive Mail podcast series explores Unity’s insights in depth, allowing listeners to make up their own minds about her scandalous life. Set across four episodes, Hitler’s English Girlfriend: The Secret Diary of Unity Mitford delves into the chilling hatred of Jews she shared with Hitler.
So infatuated that she moved to Munich aged 20 to obsessively stalk the Nazi leader, she wormed her way into his warped affections, making Hitler’s lover Eva Braun seethe with jealousy.
The black leather-bound journal, measuring seven-and-a-half inches by four-and-three-quarter inches (19cm x 12cm), exposes for the first time that Unity was almost certainly sexually active while associating with leading Nazis in Germany. This raises the tantalising prospect of whether she had a sexual relationship with the Führer himself, who was 25 years her senior.
Her diaries lay bare their growing passion for each other as Unity was embraced into the Nazis’ inner circle in the crucial months leading up to the war.
While her fellow Britons prepared for the ultimate sacrifice, the aristocratic girl – who was born in London but conceived in the Canadian town of Swastika – held a ringside seat in Germany.
The final entry in her diary is dated September 3, 1939, the day war was declared after Germany invaded Poland. Unity, 25, the daughter of the peer Lord Redesdale, and whose mother was a cousin of Sir Winston Churchill, was so distraught at the prospect of her homeland and her beloved Nazi Germany going to war with each other that she shot herself in the head in Munich’s English Garden park. She failed to kill herself, although she was left brain-damaged and the bullet remained lodged in her skull. She returned to Britain, where she died in 1948, aged 33.
It is only now – 86 years after she snapped shut her leather journal for the final time – that the public is finally able to read Unity’s account of her meetings with Hitler, thanks to a scrupulous Mail investigation involving a team of journalists led by Literary Editor Sandra Parsons and Editor-at-Large Richard Kay.
In fascinating detail, the diary chronicles how she turned from an obsessed stalker of the world’s worst human into his mesmerised confidante. And as this ground-breaking Mail series will reveal over the coming days, she did not appear to regret it for an instant. On February 9, 1935, when she first met Hitler as he summoned her to his restaurant table, she wrote: ‘The most wonderful day of my life.’
All four episodes of Hitler’s English Girlfriend: The Secret Diary of Unity Mitford are available now.
