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Hitler's Girl
Hitler's Girl: The British Aristocracy and the Third Reich on the Eve of WWII | Lauren Young
2 posts | 2 read | 1 to read
A timely, riveting book that presents for the first time an alternative history of 1930s Britain, revealing how prominent fascist sympathizers nearly succeeded in overturning British democracyusing the past as a road map to navigate the complexities of todays turn toward authoritarianism. Hitlers Girl is a groundbreaking history that reveals how, in the 1930s, authoritarianism nearly took hold in Great Britain as it did in Italy and Germany. Drawing on recently declassified intelligence files, Lauren Young details the pervasiveness of Nazi sympathies among the British aristocracy, as significant factions of the upper class methodically pursued an actively pro-German agenda. She reveals how these aristocrats formed a murky Fifth Column to Nazi Germany, which depended on the complacence and complicity of the English to topple its proud and long-standing democratic traditionand very nearly succeeded. As she highlights the parallels to our similarly treacherous time, Young exposes the involvement of secret organizations like the Right Club, which counted the Duke of Wellington among its influential members; the Cliveden Set, which ran a shadow foreign policy in support of Hitler; and the shocking four-year affair between socialite Unity Mitford and Adolf Hitler. Eye-opening and instructive, Hitlers Girl re-evaluates 1930s England to help us understand our own vulnerabilities and poses urgent questions we must face to protect our freedom. At what point does complacency become complicity, posing real risk to the democratic norms that we take for granted? Will democracy again succeedand will it require a similarly cataclysmic event like World War II to ensure its survival? Will we, in our own defining moment, stand up for democratic valuesor will we succumb to political extremism?
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review
KathyWheeler
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Panpan

I am dumbfounded by this book. It mainly discusses Unity Mitford, the Duke & Duchess of Windsor, and a treason case — Wolkoff/Kent. I‘m no historian, but given the mistakes I noticed, I don‘t know what to believe here. Some mistakes: Unity was born in England, not Swastika, Ontario; Oswald Mosley was interned in Brixton Prison, not Wormwood Scrubs; and Diana Mosley was interned in Holloway, not Wormwood Scrubs which was a men‘s prison. The Duke 🔽

KathyWheeler (Cont) of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha is variously referred to as the Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and as the Duke of Saxe and Coburg. The Duke of Windsor is referred to by that title before he‘d even ascended the throne let alone abdicated and been given that title. A rumor that Unity may not have shot herself and had had Hitler‘s baby is repeated with no proof offered. I‘m not sure what the declassified documents the author had access to offered 🔽 1y
KathyWheeler (Cont) in the way of new information as the author never makes those connections. She‘s also quite repetitive, repeating some paragraphs almost verbatim a few pages later. 1y
CSeydel Yikes! 1y
See All 8 Comments
Posh_Salad..AKA..LazyLimaLife Wow. Where was the editor? 1y
Suet624 Wow! 1y
KathyWheeler @LazyLimaLife My question exactly! Clearly nowhere near this book. The reviews on Goodreads pointed out so many more errors that I didn‘t catch because I‘m not a historian and don‘t have in-depth knowledge about this subject. 1y
KathyWheeler Young also attempts to make some comparisons between the rise of Fascism then and conditions today, but it falls flat as she mentions this at the beginning and the end but does not weave this theme into the book itself nor does she clearly illustrate this idea. (edited) 1y
KathyWheeler Her “proof” that Unity didn‘t shoot herself rests on the belief of an MI5 agent, who wasn‘t allowed to interview or get close to her, that she didn‘t. The reports of doctors both before and after Unity‘s death are dismissed as government coverups. But Young presents no sources to prove this. 1y
28 likes8 comments
review
SpiderGoddess
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Pickpick

Well written and thorough look at the British Aristocracy and their involvement with the Third Reich.