The diaries of an antisemitic British socialite who was obsessed with Adolf Hitler and struck up a personal relationship with the Nazi leader have been discovered, according to the Daily Mail.
The leather-bound journals, which had been lost to historians and unseen for eight decades, appear to reveal the extent of Unity Mitford’s relationship with the dictator.
Despite the infamous “Hitler diaries” incident, in which Sunday Times journalists were duped into publishing forged accounts, several historians believe this discovery is genuine.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, which claims to have unearthed the journals, the historian 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.”
One of the world’s foremost scholars on Unity Mitford, David Pryce-Jones, said: “I am confident they are genuine.”
The diaries detail how the aristocrat harboured a fascination with Hitler and stalked him when she moved to Munich at the age of 20. The handwritten entries expose Unity – one of the well-known Mitford sisters – as a Nazi worshipper, sharing Hitler’s hatred of Jewish people.
Spanning the years between 1935 and 1939, she recorded an account in February 1935 as “the most wonderful day of my life” when Hitler summoned her to join his table at the Osteria Bavaria restaurant.
She wrote: “Lunch Osteria 2.30. THE FUHRER comes 3.15 after I have finished lunch. After about 10 minutes he sends the Wirt [owner] TO ASK ME TO GO TO HIS TABLE.
“I go and sit next to him while he eats his lunch and we talk. THE MOST WONDERFUL DAY OF MY LIFE. He writes on a postcard for me. After he goes, Rosa [waitress] tells me he has never invited anyone like that before.”
Born in London, Mitford managed to integrate herself into Hitler’s inner circle to such an extent that her presence reportedly caused Hitler’s lover, Eva Braun, to grow jealous of their relationship.
In total, the journals chronicle 139 meetings with the Nazi leader, whom she consistently refers to as “the Führer”. She later describes him as “very sweet and gay”.
Her final entry in the diary is on 1 September 1939, the day Germany invaded Poland, with war declared two days later. Unity – then 25 – later attempted suicide.
Apparently distraught at the prospect of Britain and Nazi Germany going to war against each other, she shot herself in Munich’s English Garden park.
The attempt was unsuccessful but Unity was left brain-damaged and the bullet remained lodged in her skull. She returned to Britain, where she died in 1948, aged 33.
