They had met in Munich in 1934. Unity was in Germany as a student and began stalking the Fuhrer, watching him at his favourite haunt, the Osteria Bavaria cafe. Her persistence worked. Hitler invited her to his table and was enchanted.
Unity was one of the six Mitford Girls, daughters of the eccentric Lord Redesdale, and Hitler hoped she would provide him with a way in to British aristocratic circles.
He believed this English Valkyrie ( mythical maiden – who, in fact, had that as her middle name because her grandfather was a friend of the composer Wagner) had been sent to him.