Throughout the 1930s, Fascism seemed to be  on the rise, democracy seemed to be on the wane.

The latter was especially true in Great Britain and France.   

World War 1 had left Europe devastated and disillusioned. Britain had lost 880,000 men, which amounted to six percent of the adult male population.

For France, the losses were worse: About six million, including 1.4 million dead and 4.2 million wounded. This amounted to roughly 71 percent of those who had fought.

The Cenotaph, in London, honoring the unknown British dead of World War 1

Nazi Germany, by contrast, seemed robust and purposeful, not waiting for the future but creating the future it desired: “Volk” festivals, party rallies, awards, uniforms, pageantry were everywhere—climaxed by the country’s hosting of the 1936 Olympics. 

In foreign affairs Germany proved equally on the march: First retaking the demilitarized Rhineland between itself and France (1936); then annexing Austria (1938); then Czechoslovakia (1938).

Today, many Right-wing Americans believe that democracy no longer serves their needs—or even ensures their survival. They have turned to authoritarianism—rule by a strongman who demands strict obedience at the expense of personal freedom.

And the strongman they are rallying behind—for now—is Donald Trump.

In the 2023 novel, The Mitford Affair, by Marie Benedict, Sydney Bowles, the matriarch of the aristocratic Mitford family, cheers for a Nazi victory over Great Britain: “We must not win this war….What will become of your sisters if Great Britain wins?

“I mean, Diana and [her husband, Oswald] Mosley are here in England, but they’ve publicly aligned themselves with fascism generally and [Adolf] Hitler specifically. We must follow their lead and do all we can to make sure the right thing happens. And Unity—“

This is a reference to Unity Valkyrie Mitford, the sister who has spent five years in Germany hoping to seduce its Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler, into becoming her own. 

Nancy Mitford, Sydney’s other daughter, is appalled: “Not only is she placing the needs of her two favorite children above the rest…but she’s putting them above what’s best for the entire nation. And urging me to commit treason—like her and my sisters apparently—in the process.”

During a visit to Diana’s home, Nancy is further outraged by a series of silver-framed photos of her sisters taken during their visits to Nazi Germany: “I am barraged by pictures of Diana and Unity with Hitler, [Joseph] Goebbels and decorated Nazi officers.…

Unity and Diana Mitford posing with SS soldiers

“There are my sisters giving the Nazi salute, smiling against a backdrop of soldiers, and even sharing a meal with the Nazi leaders.”

A warning from her cousin, Winston Churchill, the future prime minister, finally leads her to betray Diana’s plans to set up a pro-Fascist radio station to aid Nazi Germany:  

“Imagine what damage a radio station in enemy hands broadcasting across England could do—creating easy communication between the enemy within and the enemy without, as well as sending out propaganda and false information to the British people.”

Today, in the United States, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s role in placing Donald Trump in the White House in 2016 is well-known. So are Trump’s sympathies with Putin.

And so are those of many Republicans—such as the two men who showed up at a Trump rally in 2018 wearing: “I’d Rather Be Russian Than Democrat” T-shirts.

Repeatedly, Trump has made clear his antagonism toward NATO, the 76-year alliance between the United States and Europe that has contained Russian aggression.

Yet while Trump viciously attacked the patriotism of Democrats generally and President Joseph Biden in particular, Democrats were unwilling to directly call Trump a traitor.

Trump called those arrested for violently trying to overturn the 2020 Presidential election “hostages” and “patriots.” He also predicted “a bloodbath” if he wasn’t re-elected in 2024.

The Biden administration could have borrowed a lesson from England: After Hitler launched his invasion of France, Churchill unleashed Defense Regulation 18B. This gave the government the power to detain anyone deemed a threat to the nation’s safety or subject to foreign influence.

Instead, it chose the appeasement “strategy” of disgraced Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain.

Marie Benedict ends her novel on a warning note for Americans: Fascists don’t change. 

After being imprisoned separately, Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists [BUF] and his wife, Diana, are allowed to be confined together. Witnessing their prison reunion is Diana’s sister, Nancy.

“It’s really me, my darling. And we will never be parted again,” says Mosley.

“Never,” says Diana, with a fierceness that shocks Nancy, who thinks:

“I watch as my sister bestows upon her husband a wide, knowing, secret smile, and it is clear she remains entirely in his sway, just as I believe Unity was under Hitler’s.…

“I know with utter certainty that Diana could sacrifice everything—country, family, her own life—for this man and his cause.” 

Similarly, there is literally no crime that Trump-–and his fanatical followers—are not willing to commit to establish a Right-wing dictatorship.

Unfortunately, the Biden administration—through ineptitude and cowardice—created the Right-wing dictatorship it could have prevented.

Sometimes a historical novel can tell frightening truths about not only a past time but the present one.  

Such is the case with The Mitford Affair (2023), by Marie Benedict.  

The years 1933 through 1939 saw the rise of Nazi Germany and the embrace of Fascism by millions—not only Germans but those outside Germany.

Among these were members of England’s aristocratic Mitford family. As the book’s cover blurb states:

“Between the World Wars, the six Mitford sisters―each more beautiful, brilliant, and eccentric than the next―dominate the English political, literary, and social scenes.

“Though they’ve weathered scandals before, the family falls into disarray when Diana divorces her wealthy husband to marry a fascist leader and Unity follows her sister’s lead all the way to Munich, inciting rumors that she’s become Adolf Hitler’s mistress.

“As the Nazis rise in power, novelist Nancy Mitford grows suspicious of her sisters’ constant visits to Germany and the high-ranking fascist company they keep. When she overhears alarming conversations and uncovers disquieting documents, Nancy must make excruciating choices as Great Britain goes to war with Germany.”

From 1933 to 1939, Adolf Hitler moved from triumph to triumph—rearming Germany, largely eliminating unemployment, lifting the morale of the vast majority of Germans. And as he did so, Fascism became increasingly popular, even chic. 

Millions saw Fascism as their only protection against Communism. Democracy was widely regarded as too weak to compete with the Soviet Union and Joseph Stalin’s legions.

While England was plagued by widespread unemployment and continuing disillusionment over the traumas of World War 1, Hitler’s Germany radiated a newfound pride and purpose.

Sisters Diana and Unity Mitford had their own private reasons for their attraction to Deutschland. Diane had married Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists (BUF). From Hitler, she hoped to gain funding for the BUF, and eventually did.

Jessica, Nancy, Diana, Unity and Pamela Mitford in 1935

Later, she and Mosley sought the creation of a German-financed ratio station to aim propaganda at their fellow Britons. Both expected—and celebrated—the future conquest of England and its total domination by Hitler.

Unity, meanwhile, became obsessed with Hitler the man. She studied German to speak conversationally with him, and for 10 months staked out his favorite restaurant in hopes of meeting him.

Adolf Hitler

Her patience bore fruit when, after repeatedly noticing her, Hitler, through an adjutant, invited her to his table. He was charmed by her knowledge of German—and her middle name: “Valkyrie.”

In Norse mythology, Valkyries were maidens sent by the god Odin to choose the dead warriors who merited a place in Valhalla.

She won even greater favor from Hitler by giving an anti-Semitic speech at a Hitler Youth festival at Hesselberg and posting an open letter in Der Sturmer (“The Daily Stormer”), the rabidly anti-Semitic newspaper run by Julius Streicher:

“The English have no notion of the Jewish danger. Our worst Jews work only behind the scenes. We think with joy of the day when we will be able to say England for the English! Out with the Jews! Heil Hitler. P.S. please publish my name in full, I want everyone to know I am a Jew hater.”

Unity Mitford

Eva Braun, Hitler’s secret mistress, saw Unity as a rival and attempted suicide with an overdose of sleeping pills. She survived, and this led Hitler to bestow greater attention on her.

For five years—at dinners, concerts, party rallies and private meetings–-Hitler remained charmed by Unity and Diana. He reveled in the company of two beautiful women who were members of the British aristocracy—and proudly and openly Fascist.

And they, in turn, remained charmed by him—and excited at their proximity to his lethal power.

Yet, in the end, all three met with disaster.

Diana never got the German radio station for her husband. Instead, she and Mosley found themselves imprisoned as German collaborators after England declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939.

Oswald Mosley

Unity, devastated that the two countries she most loved were now at war, shot herself in the temple with a small pistol Hitler had given her for protection. She survived, but remained a vegetable for the rest of her life.

Hitler paid her doctor bills, and when she was able to speak asked her if she wanted to remain in Germany or return to England. She chose England, so Hitler arranged her transportation by ambulance to neutral Switzerland. Her mother and youngest sister, Deborah, met her there and escorted her back to England. 

She died on May 28,1948, of meningitis caused by the cerebral swelling around the bullet. 

On April 30, 1945, having lost the war he had unleashed, Hitler shot himself in his underground bunker.

The Mitford Affair ends in April, 1941, so there is no mention of the death of Unity or Hitler, or the release of Diana and Oswald Mosley from prison in 1943 due to Mosley’s ill health. They were placed under house arrest until the end of the war and denied passports until 1949.

Although the novel centers on characters and incidents that reach back almost a century ago, it’s packed with truths increasingly relevant to America as it nears the 2024 Presidential election.

Those truths will be explored in Part Two of this series.