Юнити Митфорд: Ұлыбританиялық әлеуметтік тұлға және Гитлермен байланысы

English socialite best known as a devotee of Adolf Hitler

Unity Valkyrie Freeman Mitford (8 August 1914 – 28 May 1948) was a British socialite known for her relationship with Adolf Hitler. Both in Great Britain and Germany, she was a prominent supporter of Nazism, fascism and antisemitism, and belonged to Hitler's inner circle of friends. After the declaration of World War II, she attempted suicide in Munich by shooting herself in the head. She survived but was badly injured. She was allowed safe passage back to England but never recovered from the extensive brain damage; she later died from meningitis related to the bullet lodged in her head. Mitford was a member of the Mitford family, all of whom achieved fame and/or notoriety.

Unity Mitford was the fifth of seven children born in London to David Freeman Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale, and his wife, Sydney (1880–1963), daughter of Thomas Gibson Bowles, MP. (The Mitford family is an aristocratic family tracing its origins in Northumberland back to the 11th century Norman settlement of England.) Unity Mitford was conceived in the town of Swastika, Ontario, in Canada, where her family had gold mines. Her siblings were Nancy (1904–1973), Pamela (1907–1994), Thomas (1909–1945), Diana (1910–2003), Jessica (1917–1996), and Deborah (1920–2014), later the Duchess of Devonshire. The Mitford children lived at Asthall Manor in Asthall, Oxfordshire, and Unity was educated at St Margaret's School, Bushey. Diana Mosley’s biographer, Jan Dalley, believes that, "Unity found life in her big family very difficult because she came after these cleverer, prettier, more accomplished sisters." While another biographer, David Pryce Jones, added: "If you come from a ruck of children in a large family, you've got to do something to assert your individuality, and I think through the experience of trying to force her way forward among the sisters and in the family, she decided that she was going to form a personality against everything". It has been speculated that Unity turned to Nazism as a way to distinguish herself within the family. As Dalley states: "I think the desire to shock was very important, it was the way that she made herself special. When she discovered Nazism and discovered that it was a fantastic opportunity to shock everybody in England she’d discovered the best tease of all." In a letter to her father, Mitford wrote: "It was the most wonderful and beautiful [day] of my life. I am so happy that I wouldn't mind a bit, dying. I'd suppose I am the luckiest girl in the world. For me he is the greatest man of all time".

From this point on, Mitford was inducted into Hitler's inner circle and remained with him for five years. and the suspicions of the British SIS were aroused. MI5 officer Guy Liddell wrote in his diary: "Unity Mitford had been in close and intimate contact with the Führer and his supporters for several years, and was an ardent and open supporter of the Nazi regime. She had remained behind after the outbreak of war and her action had come perilously close to high treason." Mitford summered at the Berghof where she continued to discuss a possible German British alliance with Hitler, going so far as to supply lists of potential supporters and enemies. He was concerned by her demeanour and assigned two men to follow her, but she managed to shake them off by the time she entered the English Garden in Munich, where she took a pearl handled pistol given to her by Hitler for protection and shot herself in the head. Stating she could remember nothing of the incident, Mitford returned to England with her mother and sister in January 1940 amid a flurry of press interest and her comment, "I'm glad to be in England, even if I'm not on your side", She had a tendency to talk incessantly, had trouble concentrating her mind, and showed an unusually large appetite with sloppy table manners. Lees Milne observed her to be "rather plain and fat, and says she weighs ". She did however, retain at least some of her devotion to the Nazi party; her family friend Billa Harrod recalled Unity stating that she wished to have children and name the eldest Adolf. Up to 11 September 1941, Mitford was reported to have had an affair with RAF Pilot Officer John Andrews, a test pilot, who was stationed at the nearby RAF Brize Norton. MI5 learned of this and reported it to Home Secretary Herbert Morrison in October. He had heard that she "drives about the countryside and picks up airmen, etc, and interrogates them." Andrews, a former bank clerk and a married father, was "removed as far away as the limited extent of the British Isles permits." He was re posted to the far north of Scotland where he died in a Spitfire crash in 1945. Authorities then concluded that Mitford did not pose a significant threat. From 1943, she also spent long periods in Hillmorton, an area of Rugby in Warwickshire, staying with the local vicar and his family. Mitford was keen to visit her sister Diana in Holloway Prison, and Norah Elam offered to look after Mitford at their home in Logan Place for a short period. Norah Elam and her husband Dudley escorted Mitford to see Diana and Oswald Mosley in Holloway on 18 March 1943.

Mitford was taken seriously ill on a visit to the family owned island of Inch Kenneth and was taken to hospital in Oban. Doctors had decided it was too dangerous to remove the bullet in her head. On 28 May 1948, Mitford died of meningitis caused by the cerebral swelling around the bullet. She was buried at Swinbrook Churchyard. The inscription on her gravestone reads: "Say not the struggle naught availeth."

On 1 December 2002, following the release of declassified documents (including the diary of wartime MI5 officer Guy Liddell), investigative journalist Martin Bright published an article in The Observer that claimed Home Secretary John Anderson intervened to prevent Mitford being questioned on her return from Germany. He also alleged that the shooting, which "has become part of the Mitford myth", may have been invented to excuse this. Bright cites the statements of press photographers and others who witnessed Mitford's 3 January 1940 return to Britain that "there were no outward signs of her injury." Liddell had written on 2 January, "We had no evidence to support the press allegations that she was in a serious state of health, and it might well be that she was brought in on a stretcher in order to avoid publicity and unpleasantness to her family." Liddell had wanted her and her entourage, which according to Bright included known Nazi supporters, to be searched upon arrival, but the Home Secretary prevented this. On 8 January, Liddell notes receiving a report from the Security Control Officers who were responsible for meeting the arrivals that states "there were no signs of a bullet wound."

In December 2007, Bright published an article in New Statesman stating that following a previous article on Unity Mitford, he had received a phone call from a Ms Val Hann, a member of the public, offering new information on the story. The caller said that during the war, her aunt, Betty Norton, had run Hill View Cottage, a private maternity hospital in Oxford where Mitford had been a client.

Unity, a play by John Mortimer depicting Mitford's time in Berlin, was broadcast on BBC2 on 20 March 1981. Unity was played by Lesley Anne Down. Unity Mitford is mentioned in Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote. Rutherford ("Rusty") Trawler apparently was supposed to propose to Unity Mitford before the war, if Hitler had not.