Hitler's Aristocrats by Susan Ronald

This book was sent to me by the publisher St Martin's Press via NetGalley. Thank you.

The title of this work is slightly misleading. There is so much more than another rehash of the Windsors and the Mitfords disgraceful behavior. Ronald reveals a dizzying array from outright traitors and easily duped diplomats to those turning a blind eye in order to maintain or achieve their status in society. A pathological fear of communism and Goebbel's propaganda machine manipulated both the intelligent and the naive to deny their principles and even the witness of their own eyes.

The playlist is long and varied. Fortunately, Ronald includes a Dramatis Personae which is six pages long. There are certainly aristocrats and socialites. A key member is Princess Stephanie Von Hohenlohe, a Viennese commoner who married a minor member of the Hapsburg dynasty and was happy to spy for Hitler. She was embraced by English society matrons like Sybil Colfax and Emerald Cunard. At their gatherings, she hobnobbed with cabinet members, members of Parliament and industry leaders. Berlin got all of her gossip.

The Press helped. both in Britain and the US. Lord Rothermere, owner of the Daily Mail and W. R. Hearst in the States printed articles praising Hitler. Many in the diplomatic corps, chief among them Ambassador Joseph Kennedy believed that Hitler was only interested in restoring Germany's political and economic status and his antisemitism was an unfortunate result, but understandable. Charles Lindbergh was an active supporter of fascism, as was his buddy Henry Ford.

Yes, there are sane voices who saw the truth and reported it. Journalists Dorothy Thompson and William Shirer wrote chilling descriptions of what they saw in Germany. And US Ambassador Dodd sent back scathing reports to FDR about what was really happening to the Jews in Germany.

There are so many people, many right but more wrong, who are in this book. This is a cautionary account about how vulnerable we are to propaganda and how charm and charisma can disguise pure evil.

This study is a cautionary tale. If happened before,,,, ( )

Hitler's Aristocrats: The Secret Power Players in Britain and America Who Supported the Nazis, 1933-1941, by Susan Ronald, offers more names and more details to what has become an unsettling and better-known element of our past.

What one needs to understand is that these people include those arguing for appeasement, but not the ones who simply thought not going to war would keep Hitler contained. These people by and large supported Hitler's ideas and often wanted those policies imported into their own countries. In other words, we are only peripherally discussing those who thought it might be politically feasible to make treaties and hope things would get better. This is about antisemites and the worst types of nationalists. And there are a lot of echoes of these sentiments in our current political environment, so while this is history, it also speaks to our current world.

Most of us know about a lot of the people mentioned here, how they spewed vile ideas which included supporting Nazi ideals. What Ronald does so well here is bring in a few names we might not have been aware of as well as offer more details on how these people, secure in their own affluence, actively sought to spread not only the ideology but the policies that created so much death and destruction.

Highly recommended for both history buffs and those who know that history often foreshadows future (or current) events. The writing is engaging, and the information is valuable.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. ( )