Nazi Princess Read Online Free
Author: Jim Wilson
urgently desired in the public interest, MI5 recorded, to find out more about how far the princess’ activities reached.
18
J UST D ESSERTS ?
With Europe plunged into world war, what happened to the extraordinary cast of characters involved in this story?
Lord Rothermere had died in Bermuda in November 1940, as his predictions of a bombing blitz on London were becoming horrifically true – although history was to show that the Allied bombing of German cities far surpassed, in civilian deaths and in the devastation caused, anything the Luftwaffe achieved in their attacks on London.The greatest air armadas in history, of the type Rothermere had feared, flew from English airfields bearing RAF and USAAF roundels, not Nazi swastikas.
Having been told the news of Rothermere’s death in a telephone call from Hitler’s favourite journalist, Ward Price, Collin Brooks, Rothermere’s confidant and colleague, wrote in his diary that he felt conflicting emotions:
Chief of them was grief and self-pity. Grief that Rothermere should have died in Bermuda virtually alone; and self-pity that I no longer have the resort to his good humour, his sagacity, his kindness that has been mine for over five years … I remember only his great heart and his loneliness and his affection for me and me for him. 1
What had Rothermere himself believed his relationship with Princess Stephanie had been all about? Certainly until very late in the day he had no idea of the magnitude of the deception that had been practised against him, and he had been confident in his own actions by wooing the Nazi leadership. In January 1938 he had written to the princess saying:
My mission to create a better feeling between Britain and Germany has largely succeeded. Mine was a lone voice in the wilderness four years ago, but now it is generally accepted by almost every political party in this country that good relations between Britain and Germany are essential for the peace of the world.
He added with unintentional irony a tribute to the princess: ‘You have helped much to achieve this better understanding.’ 2
A more objective view was expressed by a leader in the Yorkshire Post in November 1939. Referring to Rothermere’s lengthy dealings with the Nazi leaders, revealed by the notorious court case, the paper said:
The danger of these negotiations was two-fold. There was first the danger that Lord Rothermere might unwittingly give the Nazis a misleading impression of the state of opinion in this country; and there was also the danger that Lord Rothermere might – again unwittingly – allow himself to be used as a vehicle for the extremely subtle manoeuvres of Nazi propaganda … discussions with heads of foreign governments are best left to persons whose status is on both sides clearly understood. A newspaper owner has great responsibilities towards the public of his own country; he should be particularly chary of placing himself in situations liable to misinterpretation, or abuse, abroad. 3
Princess Stephanie had fled to the United States to join her lover Fritz Wiedemann and, as told in the last chapter, she spent the rest of the war in internment there regarded as a dangerous alien; a spy for the Führer. The princess then manipulatively switched on her seductive charms to corrupt an official of the American government in an effort to protect herself. After her death, documents released in Washington suggested that during her internment the American Office of Strategic Studies had called on her experiences with the Nazi leaders to provide insights into the character of Hitler and others in the Nazi hierarchy.
Wiedemann, Stephanie’s lover, was thrown out of the United States and dispatched by Hitler to what was termed as a diplomatic post in China, but was almost certainly more to do with espionage than diplomacy.
What of the woman who was the catalyst in the princess’ and Lord Rothermere’s ‘flirtation’ with Hitler and his Nazi high
18
J UST D ESSERTS ?
With Europe plunged into world war, what happened to the extraordinary cast of characters involved in this story?
Lord Rothermere had died in Bermuda in November 1940, as his predictions of a bombing blitz on London were becoming horrifically true – although history was to show that the Allied bombing of German cities far surpassed, in civilian deaths and in the devastation caused, anything the Luftwaffe achieved in their attacks on London.The greatest air armadas in history, of the type Rothermere had feared, flew from English airfields bearing RAF and USAAF roundels, not Nazi swastikas.
Having been told the news of Rothermere’s death in a telephone call from Hitler’s favourite journalist, Ward Price, Collin Brooks, Rothermere’s confidant and colleague, wrote in his diary that he felt conflicting emotions:
Chief of them was grief and self-pity. Grief that Rothermere should have died in Bermuda virtually alone; and self-pity that I no longer have the resort to his good humour, his sagacity, his kindness that has been mine for over five years … I remember only his great heart and his loneliness and his affection for me and me for him. 1
What had Rothermere himself believed his relationship with Princess Stephanie had been all about? Certainly until very late in the day he had no idea of the magnitude of the deception that had been practised against him, and he had been confident in his own actions by wooing the Nazi leadership. In January 1938 he had written to the princess saying:
My mission to create a better feeling between Britain and Germany has largely succeeded. Mine was a lone voice in the wilderness four years ago, but now it is generally accepted by almost every political party in this country that good relations between Britain and Germany are essential for the peace of the world.
He added with unintentional irony a tribute to the princess: ‘You have helped much to achieve this better understanding.’ 2
A more objective view was expressed by a leader in the Yorkshire Post in November 1939. Referring to Rothermere’s lengthy dealings with the Nazi leaders, revealed by the notorious court case, the paper said:
The danger of these negotiations was two-fold. There was first the danger that Lord Rothermere might unwittingly give the Nazis a misleading impression of the state of opinion in this country; and there was also the danger that Lord Rothermere might – again unwittingly – allow himself to be used as a vehicle for the extremely subtle manoeuvres of Nazi propaganda … discussions with heads of foreign governments are best left to persons whose status is on both sides clearly understood. A newspaper owner has great responsibilities towards the public of his own country; he should be particularly chary of placing himself in situations liable to misinterpretation, or abuse, abroad. 3
Princess Stephanie had fled to the United States to join her lover Fritz Wiedemann and, as told in the last chapter, she spent the rest of the war in internment there regarded as a dangerous alien; a spy for the Führer. The princess then manipulatively switched on her seductive charms to corrupt an official of the American government in an effort to protect herself. After her death, documents released in Washington suggested that during her internment the American Office of Strategic Studies had called on her experiences with the Nazi leaders to provide insights into the character of Hitler and others in the Nazi hierarchy.
Wiedemann, Stephanie’s lover, was thrown out of the United States and dispatched by Hitler to what was termed as a diplomatic post in China, but was almost certainly more to do with espionage than diplomacy.
What of the woman who was the catalyst in the princess’ and Lord Rothermere’s ‘flirtation’ with Hitler and his Nazi high
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