05/23/2022
Defense analyst Young explores the pro-Nazi sentiments of “an influential segment of elite” in this thin yet intriguing history. Many in the British upper classes, reeling from WWI, the diminishment of the British Empire, and the threat of Communism, found a means “to preserve their way of life” in fascism and Nazism, according to Young. Though she documents the rise of the British Union of Fascists and the Right Club, among other organizations, Young focuses mainly on Unity Mitford, one of the aristocratic Mitford sisters and “a rabid Nazi” who sought the attentions of Adolf Hitler. After enrolling in German classes and staking out one of his favorite restaurants in Munich, Mitford eventually met with Hitler more than 160 times, and may have given birth to his son. As war between their countries became more likely, the relationship ended, resulting in Mitford’s reported suicide attempt (she claimed to have been shot by an unknown assailant). Young also suggests that pro-Nazi sentiment went all the way to the royal family, citing FBI reports that Wallis Simpson’s Nazi connections (rather than her marital status) forced Prince Edward’s abdication. The brisk narrative contains many shocking revelations but could benefit from additional context; it remains unclear just how widespread pro-German sentiment was among the British upper crust, and readers may wish for more details about efforts to undermine sympathy for fascism. This history is more titillating than definitive. (Aug.)
This timely, readable book raises hugely important questions about how people justify supporting tyrants. In Young’s engaging narrative, what led British aristocrats, such as fascist fanatics Diana and Unity Mitford, to totalitarianism almost 100 years ago resonates with alarming trends we witness today. Attacks on democracy, from January 6th to Ukraine, make understanding authoritarianism most urgent; Hitler’s Girl, sure to be controversial, contributes critical case histories to that essential conversation.
A frank and timely exploration of a seminal era in modern history deserving of more attention. Young's engaging work shines a spotlight on this pivotal moment between the World Wars by bringing some of its most complicated personalities to the fore and thus reminding us that there is always more to discover, even when we think we know the whole story.
05/01/2022
When a cache of classified documents covering the 1930s opened to researchers, Young pored over them looking for evidence of the nature and extent of support for appeasement in Britain in the pre-war period. What she found was damning: direct existence of a "murky fifth column" of British aristocrats insidiously collaborating with Germany, in the hope fascism would triumph at home as well as abroad. Parts of the story are familiar: Oswald Mosley's Blackshirts; the aristocratic Mitford sisters widely broadcast antisemitism and enthusiasm for Hitler (notably 22-year-old Unity Mitford's 140 meetings with the Führer in 1935–39); Hitler's courting of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and their support for him, which edged up to the brink of treason. But Young's new evidence confirms not only the danger British fascists posed to the nation but also the government's embarrassing, often inexplicable unwillingness to take steps against them. She also looks at evidence suggesting that Unity Mitford might have given birth to Hitler's baby. VERDICT Though it will be primarily of interest to history buffs, this may be a cautionary tale for today. Democratic institutions are fragile and many of the problems roiling the waters of the '30s are ascendant again.—David Keymer
2022-05-25
A fresh analysis of fascism in 1930s Britain.
Using the outrageous behavior of Hitler devotee Unity Mitford, the youngest of the Mitford sisters, as a point of reference, Young examines the ingrained fascism of upper-crust British society in the years before World War II. Thanks to newly opened and expanded archives, the author is able to expose a host of fascist-leaning figures during the 1930s, revealing the shockingly broad complacency and complicity among the aristocratic class. As the author shows, the rise of nationalism occurring in Germany after the ravages of World War I was exported to Britain during a similarly vulnerable time. Britain was losing many of its imperial realms, and the communist threat was rampant. Consequently, many in Britain admired Hitler’s strong-armed tactics in controlling inflation and squelching opposition, and Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists, a British parallel paramilitary operation of antisemitic, right-wing thugs, gained enormous popularity. Diana Mitford, eldest of the five aristocratic, free-willed Mitford sisters, left her marriage to Bryan Guinness to marry Mosley in secret, while her younger sister Unity, drawn magnetically to Hitler, installed herself in Munich until he drew her into his inner circle of sycophants. Meanwhile, the royal family, of German stock, was being recruited by Queen Mary’s cousin, the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, all while the Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson continued to demonstrate alarming German sympathies—a subject that has been well chronicled elsewhere. Young capably discusses many of the right-wing groups proliferating at the time as well as the long-running currents of antisemitism in Britain and the defeatist nature of Neville Chamberlain’s government. The author also wonders how Unity, followed by British intelligence, could have met “with Hitler more than 140 times between February 1935 and September 1939, espousing Nazi vitriol, without the British government ever taking a real interest.”
A pertinent historical study of “a dangerous combination of complacency and complicity.
This timely, readable book raises hugely important questions about how people justify supporting tyrants. In Young’s engaging narrative, what led British aristocrats, such as fascist fanatics Diana and Unity Mitford, to totalitarianism almost 100 years ago resonates with alarming trends we witness today. Attacks on democracy, from January 6th to Ukraine, make understanding authoritarianism most urgent; Hitler’s Girl, sure to be controversial, contributes critical case histories to that essential conversation.” — Carla Kaplan, author of Miss Anne in Harlem
“A frank and timely exploration of a seminal era in modern history deserving of more attention. Young's engaging work shines a spotlight on this pivotal moment between the World Wars by bringing some of its most complicated personalities to the fore and thus reminding us that there is always more to discover, even when we think we know the whole story.” — Catherine Grace Katz, author of The Daughters Of Yalta: The Churchills, Roosevelts, and Harrimans
“Confirms not only the danger British fascists posed to the nation but also the government’s embarrassing, often inexplicable unwillingness to take steps against them. . . . A cautionary tale for today [when] Democratic institutions are fragile and many of the problems roiling the waters of the ’30s are ascendant again.” — Library Journal
“Defense analyst Young explores the pro-Nazi sentiments of 'an influential segment of [Britain’s] elite' in this . . . intriguing history . . . The brisk narrative contains many shocking revelations.” — Publishers Weekly
"A fresh analysis of fascism in 1930s Britain. . . . Thanks to newly opened and expanded archives, the author is able to expose a host of fascist-leaning figures during the 1930s, revealing the shockingly broad complacency and complicity among the aristocratic class." — Kirkus Reviews
“Hitler’s Girl joins other recently published titles, including Geoffrey Wheatcroft's Churchill’s Shadow (2021), in interrogating the British government’s own racism and postcolonial legacy.” — Booklist
“Hitler’s Girl is required reading for anyone interested in the rise of Nazism and in the counter-factual mentioned at the outset. Lauren Young has given us a gift and has also warned us about the times we live in now which in so many ways resemble the period from 1933 to 1938 when Hitler could have been stopped.” — Counter Currents