Hitler's British Girl is a
Channel 4 documentary film about
British Nazi sympathizer Unity Mitford and her relationship with
Adolf Hitler. The film made by following an investigation by journalist
Martin Bright that revealed that she might have secretly given birth to
Hitler's lovechild.
Plot summary
The film starts with footage showing the 19-year-old Unity Mitford at the 1933
Nuremberg Rally where she said to have become obsessed with Adolf Hitler.
Unity and
Hitler said to have had a close relationship for five years and even rumoured engaged.
Newsreel footage from
January 1940 shows Unity return to
England from
Nazi Germany in a stretcher.
Contemporary newspapers speculate that her relationship with Hitler had resulted in her either poisoning herself or being shot by Hitler after a tiff. In truth, she shot herself in the head on the day war declared, only to miraculously survive. There were public calls at the time for her interned.
Recently released documents show that the head of
MI5,
Guy Liddell, agreed. According to the film, Unity's father persuaded
Home Secretary Sir John Anderson not to do so. Furthermore, despite her having had a close relationship with Hitler, she not even interrogated. Unity allowed retired quietly to the
English countryside. The documentary suggests that
Hillview Cottage, where she lived, often used as a maternity home, suggesting the possibility that she may have given birth to Hitlers baby. A niece of midwife
Betty Norton interviewed and claims that Unity had secretly given birth to a child at Hillview Cottage in
Wigginton, Oxfordshire, rumoured to be the son of Hitler.
Biographers explain Unity's difficult upbringing as the younger sister of prettier, cleverer, more successful sisters and her adoption of fascism as a way to rebel and make she distinct. In 1932, Unity's elder sister
Diana begins an affair with British fascist leader
Oswald Mosley.
Against her father's wishes, Unity meets with
Mosley and, according to Oswalds son, becomes a member of the party.
The following year, Diana and Unity go to the
Nuremberg rally as part of the British delegation, where Unity becomes obsessed with the Führer. Unity returns to
Germany in the summer of 1934 and proceeds to stalk Hitler until she eventually invited to his table at the Osteria
Bavaria Restaurant in
Munich. Hitler feels a mystical connection with the girl and she subsequently invited to party rallies and state occasions.
Bright visits the
Oxford registry office in search of birth records.
Records of numerous births at Hillview Cottage at the time corroborate claims that it was a secret wartime maternity hospital, but none registered to Unity. Biographers report that Hitler and Unity had become very close and that Hitler would play Unity off against his new girlfriend
Eva Braun until the latter attempted suicide. Unity learned from this that desperate measure were needed to capture the Fuehrers attention and had written a virulently anti-Semitic open-letter to
Der Stürmer which concluded, "
P.S. please publish my name in full, I want everyone to know I am a Jew hater." Unity summers at the Berghoff and discuses a possible German-British alliance with Hitler, going so far as to supply lists of potential supporters and enemies. These dreams are shattered, however, at the
Bayreuth festival in
1939 when Hitler warns her of imminent war and urges her to return to
Britain. She refuses and, on the day war announced, takes the gun Hitler had given her and attempts suicide.
Surviving the attempt, she visited in hospital by Hitler who arranges for her return to England.
Back in England, Bright finds apparent confirmation that she did indeed go to Wigginton. A lifetime resident of Wigginton confirms to Bright that Unity stayed at Hillview Cottage only to recover from a nervous breakdown. In 1948, the bullet, still lodged in her brain, became infected and she died en route to the hospital.
Biographers maintain that the obsessive relationship between Unity and Hitler was strictly platonic.
- published: 05 Dec 2009
- views: 143056