Royalty and the Nazis

[grandduchessella]

There's a new book coming out this year:

The Princes and the Fuhrer: German Noble Houses and the Nazi Regime by Jonathan Petropoulos for $32.50 (new).

It should have some information about some Romanov relatons in there and maybe about Ducky's support. I don't have any more info though.

[felix]

I hope Ducky dosent look too bad.I guess,she will. Very sad!  

[Elisabeth]

To give Ducky a break, it wasn't at all uncommon for White Russian emigres to support the Nazis, at least initially. Not only did the Nazis actively court White Russian support, but the tsarist regime had after all been replaced by a totalitarian government under Stalin, which murdered millions of people in cold blood. Russian emigres were aware of these developments in their homeland and had no idea that the Nazi regime would eventually prove to be as murderous as the Stalinist one. They honestly believed that Hitler was committed to fighting Bolshevism and nothing more. They were caught up in the double tragedy that was twentieth-century Russian history.

[Eurohistory]

And of course you are quite correct...many German royals saw in the Nazi movement's rise an opportunity for Germany to stand one again as a proud nation after the ills suffered at Versailles...many of these people little realized that Hitler was a wolf in lamb's skin.

Arturo Beéche

[ferngully]

double edged sword there
selina               xxxxxxxxx

[hikaru]

I higly recommend to read the memoirs of the Missie Vassilchikoff ( yanger sister of Tatiana Matterniche) about her service in the Nazi's governmental institutes and about her participation in the circle  who wanted to kill Hitler.
the  favorite accresse of Hitler - russial noble girle Olga Chekhova has participated in this too.

[Elisabeth]

Excellent suggestion, Hikaru! The diaries have been published in English as Berlin Diaries, 1940-1945, by Marie Vassiltchikov. They are interesting not only for their portrait of high society life in Hitler's Berlin but also and more importantly for the insight they give us into German resistance against Hitler, which culminated in the July 20, 1944 attempt on Hitler's life.

Marie was actually born in St. Petersburg on January 11, 1917, only a few months before the March Revolution. She grew up as a refugee in Germany, France, and Lithuania, before eventually settling in Germany in the 1930s. She found a job with the Foreign Ministry's Information Department and this is how she first came into contact with Germans in high-ranking positions who were opposed to Hitler, such as Adam von Trott du Solz, a colleague of Count von Stauffenberg. Hers is the only eyewitness diary account of the July 20, 1944 plot that is known to us. I highly recommend this book!