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Valkyrie: Gender, Class, European Relations, and Unity Mitford's Passion For

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Valkyrie: Gender, Class, European Relations, and Unity Mitford's Passion For Valkyrie: Gender, Class, European Relations, and Unity Mitford's Passion for Fascism Kathryn Steinhaus Department of History McGill University, Montreal December 2011 A Thesis submitted to the Department of History in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. ©Kathryn Steinhaus 2011 2 Table of Contents: Abstracts 3 Acknowledgments 5 Introduction 10 Chapter One “Childhood” 27 Chapter Two “Debut and BUF” 45 Chapter Three “Move to Germany” 74 Chapter Four “Ambassadress” 121 Chapter Five “Media Attention” 178 Chapter Six “Independent Adult” 221 Chapter Seven “Refusing Reality” 261 Conclusion 306 Works Consulted 325 3 ABSTRACT The English fascist and friend of Hitler, Unity Mitford, remains a controversial figure. She embodies the key social and political conflicts of the 1930s. There is considerable popular fascination with her life, yet Mitford's unique access to leaders and events of Britain and Nazi Germany makes her relevant to academic scholarship on interwar Europe. Her bizarre relationship with Adolf Hitler, the sensational media coverage of her story, and her desire to leave Britain in order to support Nazism from within Germany make Unity Mitford a fascinating lens through which to learn about gender, class, relations between European countries, and the appeal of fascism in the years before the Second World War. Her rebellions illuminate the normative values she rejected. Popular biographies and moralizing media hype are nonetheless the only texts to examine Mitford thus far. This dissertation will provide the first academic evaluation of Mitford’s experience. Using feminist theory to dissect her public image as the prototype “groupie” and microhistorical methodology to move beyond biographical format, British and German sources will be integrated for the first time to provide a new contribution to understanding fascism and interwar Europe. 4 RÉSUMÉ La fasciste anglaise et amie de Hitler, Unity Mitford, demeure un personnage controversé. Elle incarne les principaux conflits sociopolitiques des années 1930. Bien qu'il existe une fascination populaire considérable envers ce que fut la vie de Mitford, l'accès privilégié dont elle a joui auprès des dirigeants de la Grande-Bretagne et de l'Allemagne nazie, ainsi que lors d'événements marquants de l'époque, en font un sujet pertinent de recherche sur l'Europe de l'entre-deux-guerres qui mérite une étude plus approfondie. Sa relation bizarre avec Adolf Hitler, la couverture médiatique sensationnelle de son histoire et son désir de quitter la Grande-Bretagne afin de soutenir le nazisme au sein même de l'Allemagne font de Unity Mitford une lentille fascinante à travers laquelle examiner les genres, les classes humaines, les relations entre les pays européens et l'attrait exercé par le fascisme au cours des années qui ont précédé la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Ses révoltes mettent en lumière les valeurs normatives qu'elle a rejetées. Jusqu'à présent, biographies populaires et battage médiatique moralisateur ne constituent néanmoins que les seuls écrits dont Mitford a été l'objet. Le présent mémoire va fournir la toute première évaluation universitaire de l'expérience de Mitford. En mettant à contribution la théorie féministe pour disséquer l'image publique de cette femme en tant que prototype « groupie », d'une part, et la méthodologie microhistorique pour aller au-delà du genre biographique, d'autre part, pour la première fois des sources britanniques et allemandes y sont intégrées en guise de contribution nouvelle pour comprendre le fascisme et l'Europe de l'entre-deux-guerres. 5 Acknowledgments Many individuals have contributed to this research project in its various phases. It began as an undergraduate thesis at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington. The thesis supervisor was Dr. Stephen Balzarini, and my undergraduate advisors were Dr. Roderick Stackelberg and Dr. Andrew Goldman. All three professors provided key support and guidance. Stephanie Mgebroff and Jessica Valder served as peer editors of that early paper. During those years, my first experiences with feminist theory came from the Gonzaga University Women's Studies Department, particularly Dr. Cate Siejk and Dr. Jane Rinehart. I very much appreciate their guidance in the complexities of theory and its application to scholarship. I wrote the last sections of this dissertation while teaching at Seminole State College of Florida. I want to thank my colleagues there for their support during that process of writing and editing. Special thanks are due to Cornelia Dietzel for her help deciphering old German handwriting. At the graduate level during both my Masters and Doctorate programs at McGill University, Dr. Elizabeth Elbourne has been willing to support even the most unusual ideas as my chief advisor. Her warm support, keen insight, and flexible creativity have been integral parts of making this dissertation happen. Guidance has also come from Dr. Brian Lewis of McGill University and Dr. Till van Rahden of l'Université de Montréal. Both acted as additional advisors of the project. I am grateful for their suggestions on reading material, humour, and encouragement. Dr. Lorenz Lüthi of McGill University has been an unofficial advisor, and I owe him an enormous debt of gratitude for funding 6 me as a research assistant, providing an outline for structuring a proper introduction, and giving other valuable advice. Dr. Robert Tittler has been another unofficial advisor. His unwavering faith and support have been priceless. I also want to thank him for acting as primary organizer of the Montreal British History Seminar during my time at McGill. The Seminar heard part of this dissertation given as a rough paper in February 2009 and discussed the finer points of British history late into the night on many occasions. The friendship and advice from this organization (particularly Dr. Michael Cartwright, retired McGill University Professor of French Literature) made my time at McGill so much more productive and pleasurable. Bob Tittler also introduced me to Dr. Allan Sherwin (Professor Emeritus of Neurology at McGill University), and I am profoundly grateful for Dr. Sherwin’s explanations of the finer points of Unity Mitford's suicide attempt and its impact. He also generously provided additional research on medical experts and treatments during the 1930s. Research at various archives took me across two continents. This started at McGill's own library with help from Phyllis Rudin (history liaison librarian) and the helpful Inter-Library Loan staff. Funding came from my research assistantships with Professor Lüthi as well as grants from the McGill University Faculty of Arts Graduate Student Travel Award and the McGill Centre for the Research and Teaching of Women (now the McGill Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies) Margaret Gillett Award. I am grateful for all of these. Travel began at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. Rebecca Jewitt and additional staff at the school's archives helped me to navigate the papers in the Jessica Mitford Collection there. Constancia “Dinky” Romilly and 7 Benjamin Treuhaft, Jessica's children, were very generous in granting me permission to make photocopies of the family correspondence in the collection. I also want to thank Nicholas Policy and the staff at the United States National Archive and Record Administration in College Park, Maryland, for their help navigating the Captured German War Documents stored there. Jean Cannon at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas in Austin saved me a flight by generously helping me to access the Sybille Bedford Collection held at the center as I chased down information on Brian Howard. Dr. Alexander Geppert at Harvard University's Gunzburg Center for European Studies also kindly shared his ideas on love letters sent to Hitler. During a memorable trip to Britain for research, the staff at both the National Archives at Kew and the British Library Colindale Branch were incredibly courteous and helpful. Both institutions also arranged to ship copies on more than one occasion after my return to Canada. Ian Killeen and Natalie Milne with the University of Birmingham's Special Collections, and Joanne Shortland and Ruth Cammies of the Open University at Milon Keynes International Centre for Comparative Criminological Research Archives also shipped important information from their archives, which I very much appreciate. Critical interviews took place during this time across the pond. Mrs. Margaret Budd welcomed me into her home for an unforgettable afternoon in Chelsea to share her experiences as a young woman studying in Germany during the 1930s. Invaluable information also came from a close family member of Unity Mitford. I respect this individual's wish to remain anonymous but would like to voice my thanks all the same. Incredible kindness and generosity came to the rescue of this project on more than 8 one occasion. I owe a great deal to Charlotte Mosley, Diana's daughter-in-law, for granting me an interview, facilitating access to family papers, and providing irreplaceable advice. She has edited and authored many books on the subject of the Mitford sisters. I am grateful to have had her advice and support with this project. I am also grateful to the Chatsworth House Trust (particularly Helen Marchant) for allowing me access to important family papers such as Lady Redesdale's manuscript. This ability to read so many of Unity Mitford's own letters to her family allowed me to build a immeasurably
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