Diana Mosley, Hitler's angel, dies unrepentant in Paris | Politics
Politics This article is more than 20 years oldDiana Mosley, Hitler's angel, dies unrepentant in Paris
This article is more than 20 years oldDiana Mosley, widow of Britain's pre-war fascist party leader Sir Oswald Mosley and one of the notorious Mitford sisters, has died in her Paris apartment at the age of 93.
Lady Mosley, who spent much of the second world war in prison in Britain, died peacefully on Monday in the city where she had lived for over half a century, according to a death notice published today in the Times.
Despite unabating criticism of her fascist sympathies, she never apologised for her fascination with Adolf Hitler, who attended her secret wedding to Sir Oswald, held at Joseph Goebbels' Berlin home in 1936.
"They'll go on persecuting me until I say Hitler was ghastly," she said in a recent interview. "Well, what's the point in saying that? We all know that he was a monster, that he was very cruel and did terrible things. But that doesn't alter the fact that he was obviously an interesting figure.
"It was fascinating for me, at 24, to sit and talk with him, to ask him questions and get answers, even if they weren't true ones. No torture on earth would get me to say anything different."
Although she was on close terms with the most respectable members of the British establishment - from Winston Churchill and Evelyn Waugh (who said her beauty "ran through the room like a peal of bells") to Sir John Betjeman - she admitted having a peculiar affinity with Hitler.
The affection was mutual. Hitler described Diana and her sister Unity as "angels". She claimed, however, that Hitler never mentioned his anti-semitism to her during many hours of conversation.
Sir Oswald was arrested, but MI5 documents from 1940 released in November last year showed that the security services regarded Diana as the greater threat.
One read: "Diana Mosley, wife of Sir Oswald Mosley, is reported on the best authority, that of her family and intimate circle, to be a public danger at the present time.
"Is said to be far cleverer and more dangerous than her husband and will stick at nothing to achieve her ambitions. She is wildly ambitious."
When details of the memo were relayed to her last year, she responded: "Oh, it's too wonderful really."
It was not long before Diana Mosley joined her husband behind bars, in Holloway, where they spent three years before being released due to Sir Oswald's health in 1943.
Mosley was not alone in her admiration for Hitler; her sister Unity was described as "more Nazi than the Nazis" and shot herself in the head when war broke out, causing severe brain damage. She died in 1948.
Her other sisters included the communist-thinking Jessica, novelist Nancy, and Deborah, the Duchess of Devonshire.
The Mosleys moved to France in the 1950s, where they were well known for their entertaining. Sir Oswald died in 1980 and as a widow, Diana Mosley remained in Paris to continue her husband's work.
An avid reader, the mother-of-four listed gardening, swimming and her extensive family as her main interests in life. Most of Diana's five sisters achieved equal notoriety. The eldest, Nancy, based her most famous works, The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate, on her own unconventional childhood.
Jessica became a communist and moved to America, while Pamela adopted a quiet rural lifestyle. Deborah, the only surviving sister, made the Chatsworth estate a commercial success. Their only brother, Tom, was killed in the second world war.
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