Dukes of Buccleuch & Westminster: Hitler's aristocratic admirers

[Tony Gosling]

Hitler's aristocratic admirers


LORD DARLINGTON was adamant. The two young German 
maids would have to go . Miss Kenton, the 
housekeeper, was close to tears as she explained 
that they would have to return to ­Germany – a 
terrible risk considering both were Jewish.

http://www.express.co.uk/expressyourself/126784/Hitler-s-aristocratic-admirers
By 
<http://www.express.co.uk/expressyourself/126784/http://www.express.co.uk/search/Paul+Callan?s=Paul+Callan&b=1>PAUL 
CALLAN  PUBLISHED: 00:00, Sat, Sep 12, 2009
But his lordship remained unmoved. He believed in 
appeasement towards Nazi Germany and the 
employment of Jewish people was “inappropriate”.
Although fictional, there is a bitter ring of 
truth about this scene – featuring James Fox and 
Emma Thompson – from the 1993 film The Remains Of 
The Day, based on Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel.
The Lord Darlington figure was typical of a 
formidable group of British peers who were 
attracted by Hitler and supported efforts to keep 
the dictator placated. A new book, Aristocrats by 
Lawrence James, includes material on such 
ardently Right-wing and anti-Semitic aristocrats 
and how their vile attitudes brought considerable satisfaction to Hitler.
What lay behind their support of appeasement was 
a fear of Communism . “What emerges,” writes 
James, “is a picture of a knot of peers adrift in 
an uncongenial world, united by paranoia, pessimism and panic.”
‘A knot of peers were united by utter paranoia’ 
‘One duke went to the Führer’s birthday party’ 
‘Lord Brocket fawned over visiting Nazis’
They all saw an immensely powerful union between 
Communism and the Jewish people as a world 
conspiracy that could be thwarted only by Fascism.
Both Hitler and his strutting Italian cohort 
Mussolini offered these bewildered aristocrats a 
safe world that would be secure from any 
Communist takeover. It also confirmed their long-held private prejudice.
Explains James: “[Visceral] anti-Semitism 
permeated the upper classes between the wars. 
Jews were vilified as flashy and pushy arrivistes 
with a knack of enriching themselves when the 
aristocracy was grumbling about an often 
exaggerated downturn in their fortunes.”
What made such hatred additionally odious was the 
fact these peers continued to air their views 
long after Hitler’s persecution of Germany’s 
Jewish population had become widely known.
Prominent among such peers was Lord Brocket who 
joined various anti-Semitic organisations. He 
fawned over visiting Nazi officials whom he 
invited to his home and even attended the 
celebrations for Hitler’s 50th birthday.
Brocket, said to be “a fundamentally nice but 
stupid man” even deluded himself that he was a 
valuable link between Hitler and Britain’s 
leaders. It was suggested that he lit fires on 
his Hertfordshire estates to guide German bombers on their way to London.
Another pro-Nazi peer was Lord Redesdale . His 
daughters, who became famous as the literary 
Mitford sisters, included Unity who went to 
Germany and stalked Hitler, having fallen in love 
with him. Although she did become close to Hitler 
– he considered her to be a “perfect example of 
Aryan womanhood” – he told her to return to 
England as war approached. She shot herself in 
the head in Munich’s English Garden but survived and was dispatched home.
Another admirer of Hitler was the Duke of 
Westminster, a man who believed countless 
conspiracies among British Jews to subvert the 
country. He even spent the first year of the war 
demanding, to whoever would listen, that peace be made with Germany.
One of the most colourful ermine-clad extremists 
was the 22nd Earl of Erroll, the Casanova of 
Kenya’s debauched Happy Valley set. After being 
mesmerised by Hitler, this devastatingly handsome 
man promised to introduce Fascism to East Africa. 
This included a self-supporting empire that would 
not “trade with the dirty foreigner”.
But his plans were short-lived. The Earl was 
found murdered in his car on January 24, 1941, on 
a country road outside Nairobi. It has been 
suggested that his death was carried out by the 
British secret services when his political activities became dangerous.
Among the most famous names associated with 
anti-Semitism was the fifth Duke of Wellington . 
He became a member of the secret Right Club, 
which attempted to unify all pre-war Right-wing groups in Britain.
The founder, Archibald Ramsay, said of the 
organisation: “The main objective was to oppose 
and expose the activities of organised Jewry. Our 
first objective was to clear the Conservative 
Party of Jewish influence, and the character of 
our membership and meetings were strictly in keeping with this objective.”
Yet another extremist was the Marquess of Graham 
. He succeeded to the title of Duke of Montrose 
and went to live in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) where 
he became a staunch white supremacist. He served 
in Ian Smith’s breakaway Rhodesia Front 
government and in one speech said: “The Beatles, 
international finance groups, colonial freedom 
movements and students agitators were all agents 
of a communist plot to achieve world domination.”
One Hitler-admiring peer, the Duke of Buccleuch, 
was even close to King George VI as the Lord 
­Steward of the Royal Household. He also 
accompanied Lord Brocket to celebrate the 
Führer’s 50th birthday. It was a matter of 
personal delight to Hitler that the duke, a man 
who served in the very court of Britain’s Royal Family, was there .
Buccleuch was opposed to any war with the Nazis 
and when it did break out in 1939, he joined the 
Peace Aims Group and urged a truce based on 
Germany keeping all the lands Hitler had stolen 
in Europe. Even after the bombing started, he 
continued to defend Hitler. A continuing 
embarrassment to the King, he was sacked in 1940.
One of the most alarming figures among this cabal 
was Lord Londonderry – Winston Churchill’s cousin 
and a member of one of the country’s wealthiest 
aristocratic families. The king called him 
“Charlie” and other members of the Royal Family 
were frequent guests at his London home, as were major political figures.
He regularly visited Germany, met Hitler several 
times and even stayed with Goering at his hunting 
lodge. But he was not taken seriously and 
Churchill referred to him as a “half-wit”. He was 
known in the press as “the Londonderry Herr” for his pro-German leanings.
One of the best-known figures was Sir Oswald 
Mosley, founder of the Blackshirts and a man who 
yearned to be Britain’s own “Führer”. A highly 
charismatic man , he was deeply impressed by 
Mussolini and founded the British Union of Fascists.
I once interviewed him at his ­Versailles home 
and over lunch, at which Lady Mosley (one of the 
Mitford sisters) was present, we discussed the Holocaust.
I mentioned, just in the course of conversation, 
that I was Jewish – at which Lady Mosley went 
ashen, snapped a crimson nail and left the room. 
No explanation was given but she would later write to a friend:
“A nice, polite reporter came to interview Tom 
[as Mosley was known] but he turned out to be 
Jewish and was sitting there at our table. They 
are a very clever race and come in all shapes and sizes.”
But towering over all these figures were the Duke 
and Duchess of Windsor. He had abdicated as King 
Edward VIII in 1936 in order to marry American 
divorcée, Wallis Simpson. They were later given the ducal titles .
Their admiration for Hitler concerned the 
government, particularly after they were 
entertained by him on a visit in 1937. Even the 
Americans were alarmed – the FBI sent a memo to 
President Roosevelt ­stating that the duchess was 
“exceedingly pro-German in her sympathies and 
connections”. The Duke was given the wartime job 
of governor of the Bahamas and ­Roosevelt ordered 
the FBI to follow them when they visited the US.
It was believed that Goering had concluded a deal 
with the Duke to install him on the throne after 
Germany had won the war. His court would, no 
doubt, have comprised many of those pernicious 
peers who had lauded Hitler so lavishly.
l To order Aristocrats: Power, Grace And 
Decadence by Lawrence James (Little, Brown, £25) 
with free UK delivery, send a cheque or PO made 
payable to Express Bookshop to Aristocrats Book 
Offer, PO Box 200, Falmouth TR11 4WJ or phone 
0871 988 8367 (calls (10p/min from UK landlines) 
or visit www.expressbookshop.com

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