Marie Vassiltchikov
Encyclopedia
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
princess
Princess
Princess is the feminine form of prince . Most often, the term has been used for the consort of a prince, or his daughters....
who was acquainted with some of the people who plotted to kill kill Adolf Hitler in the July 20 Plot
July 20 Plot
On 20 July 1944, an attempt was made to assassinate Adolf Hitler, Führer of the Third Reich, inside his Wolf's Lair field headquarters near Rastenburg, East Prussia. The plot was the culmination of the efforts of several groups in the German Resistance to overthrow the Nazi-led German government...
, but was not directly involved in the plot itself.
Early life
Princess Marie ("Missie") Vassiltchikov was born in Saint PetersburgSaint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, in the waning days of the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
, on January 11, 1917. She was the fourth child of a member of the Fourth Duma, Prince
Knyaz
Kniaz, knyaz or knez is a Slavic title found in most Slavic languages, denoting a royal nobility rank. It is usually translated into English as either Prince or less commonly as Duke....
Hilarion Sergueïevitch Vassiltchikov and his wife, the former Princess Lidiya Leonidovna Vyazemskaya
Vyazemsky
Vyazemsky is a town in Khabarovsk Krai, Russia, located southwest of Khabarovsk close to the Ussuri River and the border with China. Population: -History:...
. As members of the aristocracy, her parents fled Russia in 1919, following the Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
October Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
. Princess Marie lived as a refugee in Weimar Republic
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...
Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, the French Third Republic
French Third Republic
The French Third Republic was the republican government of France from 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed due to the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, to 1940, when France was overrun by Nazi Germany during World War II, resulting in the German and Italian occupations of France...
, and Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
until the start of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Plot to kill Hitler
In 1940, Princess Marie and her sister, Princess Tatiana Vassiltchikova http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/08/19/db1901.xml&page=1 (1915–2006), traveled to BerlinBerlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
where, as stateless persons, they were able to obtain work permits. After a brief period of employment with the Broadcasting Service, Vassiltchikov transferred to the Auswärtiges Amt (AA), or German Foreign Ministry
Foreign Office (Germany)
The Foreign Office is the foreign ministry of Germany, a federal agency responsible for both the country's foreign politics and its relationship with the European Union. From 1871 to 1919, it was led by a Foreign Secretary, and since 1919, it has been led by the Foreign Minister of Germany...
's Information Office, where she worked as the assistant to Dr. Adam von Trott zu Solz
Adam von Trott zu Solz
Adam von Trott zu Solz was a German lawyer and diplomat who was involved in the conservative opposition to the Nazi regime, and who played a central part in the 20 July Plot...
.
Due to the tendency of Nazi party members to bypass the Foreign Ministry staff when formulating policy as described in Princess Marie's diaries, the A.A. effectively became a gathering place for civilian members of the anti-Nazi
National Socialist German Workers Party
The National Socialist German Workers' Party , commonly known in English as the Nazi Party, was a political party in Germany between 1920 and 1945. Its predecessor, the German Workers' Party , existed from 1919 to 1920...
resisters including Dr. von Trott zu Solz. In 1944, he was among the leaders of the July 20 Plot to kill Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
. Princess Marie kept diaries of her life in the plotters' circle. She wrote in shorthand and kept the pages hidden in her A.A. office and in other locations but was not actively involved in the plot. In addition, her diaries detail the bombing of Berlin, the daily life of what remained of Berlin's cosmopolitan pre-war nobility
Nobility
Nobility is a social class which possesses more acknowledged privileges or eminence than members of most other classes in a society, membership therein typically being hereditary. The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be...
and intelligentsia
Intelligentsia
The intelligentsia is a social class of people engaged in complex, mental and creative labor directed to the development and dissemination of culture, encompassing intellectuals and social groups close to them...
, and her own journey from privilege to near-death at the end of the war.
Following the failed attempt to kill Hitler, many of her friends and colleagues were imprisoned and a number were killed. Princess Marie and her friend Princess Elenore (Loremarie) von Schönburg went several times to Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
headquarters to plead for the life of Dr. von Trott zu Solz (among others) and to bring food and packages. Eventually, they were warned by a friendly guard not to return.
After Dr. von Trott zu Solz was executed, Princess Marie left Berlin and traveled to Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, where she worked as a nurse until the end of the war.
Post-war
Princess Marie was found by the United States Third Army under the command of US Army General George S. PattonGeorge S. Patton
George Smith Patton, Jr. was a United States Army officer best known for his leadership while commanding corps and armies as a general during World War II. He was also well known for his eccentricity and controversial outspokenness.Patton was commissioned in the U.S. Army after his graduation from...
outside Gmunden
Gmunden
Gmunden is a town in Upper Austria, Austria in the district of Gmunden. It has 13,202 inhabitants . It is much frequented as a health and summer resort, and has a variety of goat, lake, brine, vegetable and pine-cone baths, a hydropathic establishment, inhalation chambers, whey cure, etc...
on May 4, 1945. She worked as an interpreter for the army, but contracted scarlet fever
Scarlet fever
Scarlet fever is a disease caused by exotoxin released by Streptococcus pyogenes. Once a major cause of death, it is now effectively treated with antibiotics...
and was transported to a hospital unit.
On January 28, 1946, Princess Marie Vassiltchikov married U.S. Army Captain Peter G. Harnden of Military Intelligence
Military intelligence
Military intelligence is a military discipline that exploits a number of information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to commanders in support of their decisions....
. They settled in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, where Harnden opened an architectural firm. After Harnden died in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
in 1971, she moved to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. After her husband's death, she bowed to the wishes of friends and relatives who had been encouraging her to publish her wartime diaries. She died in London of leukemia
Leukemia
Leukemia or leukaemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow characterized by an abnormal increase of immature white blood cells called "blasts". Leukemia is a broad term covering a spectrum of diseases...
on August 12, 1978. At the time, the task of editing and polishing her diaries was still incomplete; this task was completed by her brother.
Princess Marie Illarionovna Harden was survived by her four children; her brother, Prince Yuri "Georgie" Vassiltchikov; and her sister, Princess Tatiana von Metternich-Winneburg
Tatiana von Metternich-Winneburg
Tatiana von Metternich-Winneburg was a German patron of the arts of Russian birth. She published her books and watercolours under the name Tatiana von Metternich. She supported charity, especially the Red Cross and the Order of St...
, who was married to Paul Alfons von Metternich-Winneburg, a descendant of Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, the prominent Austrian state chancellor and diplomat of the Napoleonic era.
Legacy
Vassiltchikov's diaries are one of only two kept by participants in the July 20th Plot to kill Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
. The other diary was written by Ulrich von Hassell
Ulrich von Hassell
Ulrich von Hassell was a German diplomat during World War II. A member of the German Resistance against German dictator Adolf Hitler, Hassell was executed in the aftermath of the failed July 20 plot.- Family :...
. Also, her description of the repeated bombing of Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
during the war is considered one of the best testimonies of that experience.
The diaries are also important in that they chronicle a little-known aspect of Hitler's war crimes: 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 many members of the prominent members of the ruling families of Europe.
A poignant feature of Vassiltchikov's diary is its arc from the first pages in 1940 to its conclusion in 1945. She begins by recounting a night spent dancing at a ball at the Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
an embassy and ends with her flight from Vienna, which found her stumbling, filthy and half-starved, across a bombed railroad depot at the end of the war. Her account of wartime Berlin at times takes on an air of surreality as she writes about days that combined lunches at the Hotel Adlon
Hotel Adlon
Hotel Adlon is a hotel on Unter den Linden, the main boulevard in the Berlin city centre, directly opposite the Brandenburg Gate.-First Hotel Adlon 1907-1945:...
and nights spent in half-ruined flats and conversations that ranged from gossip about her noble and royal friends to the intended killing of Hitler.
External links
- Marie Vassiltchikov: Berlin Diaries 1940-1945, 1988. ISBN 0-394-75777-7 Russian translation available online
- Tatiana Metternich: Five Passports in a Shifting Europe, 1976. ISBN 0-434-46525-9
- Random House Author's Page: Marie Vassiltchikov
- Amazon.com link to Tatiana Metternich
- Hilarion Vassiltchikov