3 Unity had presented Hitler with a collage she had made of Hannibal crossing the Alps.
4 Nancy’s nickname for Unity. Horst Wessel (1907–30) was an SA storm trooper murdered by communist sympathizers in a private quarrel. Goebbels exploited his death and transformed him into a martyr. A poem written by Wessel and set to music became the marching song of the SA and later the official song of the Nazi Party.
1 Cecily Fenwick; a friend of Lady Redesdale.
2 A noisy beer hall with a rustic cabaret that performed Bavarian dances.
3 On 9 February, Unity had met Hitler for the first time at the Osteria Bavaria.
4 Wilhelm Brückner (1884–1954). Hitler’s chief adjutant.
5 Probably diplomatic notes that were being exchanged following Hitler’s violation of the military clauses of the Treaty of Versailles.
6 Jakob Werlin (1886–1958). An SS regional commander and manager of Daimler-Benz in Munich who supplied Hitler with Mercedes cars.
7 Julius Stadelmann; one of Hitler’s junior adjutants.
1 Unity had been apprehensive about introducing Tom to Hitler as he was anti-Nazi – or lukewarm towards Nazi policies at best – and was not an anti-Semite. Although Unity tried to reassure Diana that Tom had been won over by meeting Hitler, Diana remained uncertain of her brother’s allegiance. When Hitler extended an invitation to Tom for the 1936 Parteitag, Unity wrote to Diana, ‘Oh Nardy please don’t think it’s my fault because it really isn’t, it was his [Hitler’s] own idea.’ A year later, however, she wrote to Diana that she was composing a verse to celebrate Tom’s conversion.
2 Joachim ‘von’ Ribbentrop (1893–1946). Hitler’s foreign affairs adviser since 1933. Appointed ambassador to London in August 1936 and Reich Foreign Minister in 1938. Unity and Diana both disliked him and regarded him as a poor choice for ambassador.
3 Erna Hanfstaengl; Putzi’s sister, whom he once referred to as ‘a good girl’, worked in the family shop selling prints of Old Masters. She often invited Unity to stay at her cottage at Uffing near Munich.
1 A Burford antique shop.
1 Unity had addressed the annual Nazi festival at Hesselberg where she expressed sympathy with the German people and admiration for the Nazis’ treatment of the Jews. She also gave an interview to a Munich newspaper about the BUF and its anti-Semitic stance.
2 Hermann Göring (1893–1946). The most powerful man in the Third Reich after Hitler was present at the Hesselberg rally. Nancy was parodying Alfred Lord Tennyson’s ‘The May Queen’ (1833): ‘You must wake and call me early, call me early, mother dear … For I’m to be Queen o’ the May, mother.’
3 Germany’s first concentration camp had been opened at Dachau in March 1933 by Heinrich Himmler (1900–45), head of the Gestapo and Waffen-SS. The first prisoners were political detainees, rounded up after the burning of the Reichstag.
4 William Maxwell Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook (1879–1964). The politician, financier and newspaper proprietor campaigned for appeasement with Germany.
1 Diana had been involved in a car crash in which her face was badly injured.
1 This letter was transcribed in Lady Redesdale’s unpublished memoir of Unity. The orìginal has not been found.
2 Jessica and Unity left on a ten-day sightseeing tour of Germany on 24 September.
3 Although they both knew the invented language, it was unusual for Jessica and Unity to communicate in Honnish rather than Boudledidge.
4 ‘In spite of all.’
5 For the second time in two years, Diana had aborted a child she was expecting with Mosley.
1 Erich Widmann; Unity’s SS boyfriend who worked in a photography shop.
2 Ella van Heemstra (1900–84). Dutch-born mother of the actress Audrey Hepburn. She and her English husband, Joseph Hepburn-Ruston, were both keen BUF members at the time.
3 Michael Burn (1912–). A young reporter on the Gloucester Citizen who had met Unity in London. An initial enthusiasm for Hitler soon turned to disenchantment. He was imprisoned in Colditz during the war and became a convert to Marxism.
4 A waitress at the Osteria Bavaria.
5 Hitler suffered from a chronic stomach condition.
6 Heinrich Hoffmann (1885–1957). Hitler’s official photographer and author of The Hitler Nobody Knows (1933).
7 Otto Dietrich (1897–1952). Hitler’s press chief 1933–45.
8 ‘Just ran away.’
9 James Rennell Rodd, 1st Baron Rennell (1858–1941). Nancy’s father-in-law was a diplomat, poet and scholar. Married Lilias Guthrie in 1894. He and his wife attended the 1936 Olympic Games.
10 ‘The most beautiful moment of my life.’
1 Lady Redesdale had taken Jessica and Deborah