The Mitford Sisters, pt. 2

This is part 2 of the coverage of the incredible Mitford sisters. For part 1, please click here.

The forth sister Unity is a real cracker. You might have heard about her because she’s the one who shot herself because she loved Hitler so much. British intelligence described her as “more Nazi than the Nazis”.

Even her own eccentric siblings called Unity the strange one. An extrovert, with a burning desire for attention of any kind, even to the price of alienating people. She had a pet snake, that she used to freak people out. If she got bored at a party, she’d wrap her snake around her shoulders to cause a stir. She was really odd.

Unity was somewhat destined to become Hitler’s groupie for two reasons: 1) she was conceived in – I kid you not – Swastika, Ontario. Her father (who btw was a pretty useless fella) had a gold mining spot and moved the family over for a short time and try his luck (spoiler alert: it didn’t work). And 2) Her middle name was – I kid you not again – Valkyrie. In the Nordic saga, Valkyries are creatures who guide the fallen warriors to Walhalla. German Nazi culture embraced everything Nordic and more importantly, composer Richard Wagner (a passionate antisemite totally adored by Adolf himself) wrote an uber-famous opera about the Valkyries. You all know the opera from this famous scene in Apocalypse Now:

Growing up, Unity shared a bedroom with her younger sister Jessica. Despite being close, they ended up on different ends of the political spectrum. They divided the bedroom in the middle with a fascist side and a communist side. Each side decorated in appropriate colours and posters of their heros, Stalin and Hitler. The girls even cut symbols into the glass of their windows: Swastikas by Unity and hammer and sickle by Jessica.

For her finishing year she choose Munich so that she could stalk Hitler. And I mean crazy stalker-like. She was like a crazy Justin Bieber fan, but for Hitler. She stalked what his routine was, where her went and when and then went to the same restaurants, hoping to see him. The freaky thing is … it worked! I guess it was just meant to be for Valkyrie from Swastika? Hitler noticed her at a café and they had a chat. He invited her over and they chatted some more. After that, they met frequently & in private and she sat by his feet while he stroked her hair (akwwwwwarrrd). Unity was in heaven, living out her teenage girl fantasy to the fullest.

She stayed in Munich for five years, like Hitler’s English pet. He gave her a private box at the Olympic Games. He had her invite her Mom so they could all have tea together. He gave her a list of addresses to choose an apartment from. She went to have a look at the places, while the terrified current Jewish residents had to watch her measuring out the rooms. They were deported the next day for the new occupant. Unity didn’t give a shit. She once said she was proud to call herself a Jew-hater.

When Britain declared war against Nazi Germany in 1939, Unity was desperate. Torn between the love for her country and the love for Hitler, she saw only one option. In the English Garden in Munich, she shot herself in the head. The bullet didn’t kill her though. Unity survived badly injured.

Hitler arranged to Unity to be transported to neutral Switzerland, where her family picked her up and brought her home. The damage to her brain was severe and Unity was changed forever. She needed constant care and remained child-like in behaviour, unable to live a normal, adult life. The bullet stayed in her brain for the rest of her life, killing her in the long run, nine years later.

Jessica, the fifth sister, was the red sheep of the family. She was a die-hard communist as much as Diana and Unity were full blown Nazis. She was born in 1917 and with the older sisters living their own lives, the Mitford house became more and more isolated and boring. Jessica dreaded the family home. If felt like a prison to her, that kept her from making experiences. Nothing ever happened. So she red political pamphlets and dreamed about becoming a radical lefty.

At 19 she met Esmond, a nephew of Winston Churchill, who was the red sheep in HIS family (got kicked out of school, published a commie magazine out of a bookstore, had been to the front of the Spanish Civil War – none of these were agreeable career choices for Churchill offspring). The fell in love, but needed a plan to “rescue” Jessica from the safe & sound family prison. They made up a friend abroad who invited Jessica to visit her, tricking her parents into agreement. Esmond and Jessica eloped to Spain to help in the Civil War, causing a scandal at home. It would be decades before she would return to her childhood home and she never saw her father again.

In Spain, the pair lived under extremely rough conditions. For Jessica, it was the opposite of the life she’d known, but it was exactly what she had dreamed about for so long. They didn’t speak any Spanish and had no money, so they wrote about the war for international magazines to pay the bills. After their return to London they lived in the East End, which is the furthest away on the social scale two young aristocrats could possibly be within Britain. They married and had a daughter, who died as a infant. They emigrated to the US and moved a lot, working odd jobs and had another baby. Esmond then joined the military, but his plane went MIA in the north sea.

To make ends meet as a single mother, Jessica threw herself into work. She was a writer and an activist for the civil rights movement and against the KKK. During her work she met Robert Treuhaft, who became her second husband. He was a far left laywer who represented Unions, Civil rights activists, anti-Vietnam war protesters and members of the Black Panthers (in the 70s Hillary Clinton was one of his interns). The pair settled in Oakland, California and became members of the communist party. Whenever Jessica received inheritance money from her family, she donated it to the communist party, eventually causing her father to exclude her from his will to make sure none of his money would go to the communists. They were questioned in McCarthy’s Committee for Commie hunting, but refused to give testimony. After learning of Stalin’s crimes, they left the communist party, disillusioned.

Jessica was an accomplished journalist by that time. She wrote a book about the funeral industry, which she researched five years for. It unpacked the unscrupulous tactics of the industry to take advantages of grieving families. The book was a HUGE bestseller and led to congressional hearings. It was also the reason why President Kennedy was buried in a simple coffin instead of a showing-off-big-ass-coffingrandezza as might befit a President. Jessica also recorded two music albums, including Duets with Maya Angelou, CAN YOU BELIEVE IT??

She had such a packed and full life and was admirably unafraid. She lived up to what she thought was right, regardless the consequences. Jessica was the only sister to turn her back to her aristocratic privileges. She died of lung cancer at age 78.

The sixth and last sister, Deborah, born 1920, was finally a Mitford daughter who lived up to the expectations bestowed upon high born women. She was the last and only sister in the house for a long time. While the others were out and about, causing scandals, getting married, becoming mistresses, writing books or being on the war front, she was still at home. It must’ve influenced her, because between the political and personal rifts in her family, she was the only one who remained on speaking terms with all of them. She was the bridge between the siblings.

She married Andrew Cavendish, whose brother was heir to a dukedom. The brother died in the war (his wife Kick was a sister of JFK. She fell victim to the Kennedy curse when she died in a plane crash when she was just 28 years old), so the dukedom fell to Andrew, which made Deborah the Duchess of Devonshire. If you’re not very familiar with titles, it’s good to know that a duke/duchess is veeery high up in rank. It’s the closest to the royal family you can be. Like, the Queen’s husband is a duke and two handfuls of other people and that’s that. It’s a tiny circle of VVVIPs.

At 30 years old Deborah basically became the CEO of Chatsworth House, one of the largest estates in the country (Don’t get fooled by the word “House”, it’s a friggin castle with 173 rooms, six libraries and two full-time window cleaners). Upon inheritance, the tax pilled up so high, that financial advisers suggested giving up the estate. Instead, the Cavendishes sold of land and art to pay for their tax debt. They also modernised the castle and opened it to the public to generate income. Deborah turned the place into a tourist magnet. 250.000 people visit the castle each year! The estate cashes in about 70 Million Euros a year through ticket sales, biscuits and merchandise.

Surprisingly for people of their status, Deborah and her husband both joined the Social Democratic Party. And surprising for a Mitford sisters, Deborah never had any scandals. She had seven kids, of which sadly only three survived (the current Duke is Deborah’s oldest surviving son). Here’s one last fun fact: At the time of her death in 2014 (aged 94) she was the last living Briton to have personally met Adolf Hitler!

Women at the time were expected to marry, give birth and look pretty. None of the Mitford sisters conformed to this. They all took very different paths through life. They did so unapologetically and with an audaciousness that was shocking. They made choices on their own terms and isn’t that where equality starts? To be able to make one’s own choices, even if it means choosing the wrong side of the war.