|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
May 22, 2012 |
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Image:Vasilchikov Diaries.jpg|right|Cover of "Berlin Diaries" Marie Vassiltchikov (lang-ru|?????????? ????????????????????????, January 11 1917-August 12 1978) was a Russia|Russian princess who was involved in the July 20 Plot to kill Adolf Hitler. Princess Marie (Missie) Vassiltchikov was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, on January 11 1917. A member of the aristocracy, her parents fled Russia in 1919, following the Bolshevik revolution. Missie lived as a refugee in Germany, France and Lithuania until World War II. During World War II, Missie and her sister, Princess Tatiana Metternich traveled to Berlin where, as stateless persons, they were able to obtain work permits. After employment with the Broadcasting Service, Missie transferred to the Ausw??rtiges, the A.A. or German Foreign Ministry's Information Office, where she worked as the assistant to one of the July 20 Plot's civilian leaders, Dr. Adam von Trott zu Solz. The A.A. was a gathering place for civilian members of the anti-Nazi resisters who were involved in the July 20 Plot to kill Adolf Hitler. Missie kept diaries of her day to day dealings with the plotters. Her diaries are the only known first hand account of the July 20 Plot. In addition, Missie's diaries detail the bombing of Berlin, the daily life of the European aristocracy prior to its having been all but wiped out by Hitler and her own journey from privilege to near-death at the end of the war. Following the failed attempted to kill Hitler, most of Missie's friends and colleagues were killed. Missie and a friend, Princess Elenore (Loremarie) von Sch??nburg, both active in the plot, went several times to Gestapo headquarters to plead for the life of Adam von Trott zu Solz (among others) and to bring food and packages. Finally, they were warned off by a guard not to return. After Adam von Trott zu Solz was executed, Missie left Berlin and traveled to Vienna, where she worked as a nurse until the end of the war. Missie was found by General Patton's U.S. Third Army outside Gmunden on 4 May, 1945. She worked as an interpreter for the army, but contracted scarlet fever and was transported to a hospital unit. After her return to health, Missie married a captain with U.S. Military Intelligence named Peter G. Harnden. They settled first in Paris, where Harden opened an architectural firm. After Harnden died in Barcelona in 1971, Missie moved to London. She died of leukemia on August 12 1978. At the time of her death, Missie was survived by her four children, her brother, Prince Georges Vassiltchikov, her sister, Princess Tatiana Metternich, wife of Prince Paul Metternich, the grandson of Otto von Bismark, the famed Iron Chancellor, and other family members. "A skillful weaving of history, memoir, and autobiography...full of colorful characters...When she began writing in 1940, Missie, as she was called, was...concerned mainly with beaux and parties....By 1945 she has no more illusions. She has foraged for food....She has smelled the decaying flesh of corpses buried in the bombed ruins of Berlin and Vienna and lost some of her best friends." -- Washington Post Book World "Neither a set of reflections flor a philippic, but a record ...The best eyewitness account we possess of the bombing of Berlin." -- Gordon A. Craig, The New York Times Book Review "A rare opportunity to see the Second World War from an unusual perspective: the view from Berlin and Vienna, not Washington or London. The author has a sharp eye and a witty tongue." -- Cleveland Plain Dealer "A vivid insider's view of Nazi Germany." -- Vanity Fair "One of the most remarkable documents to come out of the war, and nothing will ever quite match its calm and grace in utterly hideous circumstances." -- John Kenneth Galbraith Missie's diaries are the only known first hand account of the July 20th Plot to kill Adolf Hitler. In addition, her description of the repeated bombing of Berlin is considered one of the best testimonies of that event. Missie's diaries are also important in that they chronicle a little known aspect of Hitler's war crimes -- that is the destruction of the aristocracy of Europe. Hitler and the aristocracy had an uneasy relationship during the war. After it became clear that many of the July 20 Plot participants were members of the aristocracy, Hitler used the assassination attempt as an excuse to wipe out the prominent members of the ruling families of Europe. A poignant feature of Missie's diaries is in the arc of the story from the beginning of her diaries in 1940, where her main concern was the type of dress she would wear to a ball at the Chilean embassy, to her desperate search for food at the end of the war.
Category: Women writers|Vassiltchikov, Marie (Missie) Category: Russian writers|Vassiltchikov, Marie (Missie) Category: Russian nobility|Vassiltchikov, Marie (Missie) Category:1917 births|Vassiltchikov, Marie Category:1978 deaths|Vassiltchikov, Marie This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Marie Vassiltchikov".
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
![[F]](/images/site.gif){kind=small}
|
|||
|
|
|
|
|
|||
|
All informatin on the site is © www.woman-health.org 2002-2011. Last revised: January 2, 2011 Are you interested in our site or/and want to use our information? please read how to contact us and our copyrights. To let us provide you with high quality information, you can help us by making a more or less donation: |