Women’s History Month Feature: “Sisters in Resistance.”
How a German Spy, a Banker’s Wife, and Mussolini’s Daughter Outwitted the Nazis” by Tilar J. Mazzeo
By Guest Contributing Reviewer by
Nothing exemplifies the adage “truth is stranger than fiction” more than “Sisters in Resistance, a rollicking story of how three brave women, with different political views, collaborated to help the Allies achieve important convictions at the Nuremberg trials in 1945-46.
The story begins in 1939 with Count Galeazzo Ciano, the suave and debonair Italian Foreign Minister who was married to the dictator Benito Mussolini’s beloved daughter, Edda. Like Mussolini, Ciano was a fascist, dedicated to Mussolini and his fascist policies.
In fact, many regarded Ciano as his father-in-law’s heir apparent. Because he was Italy’s Foreign Minister, Ciano became a member of Nazi leader Adolph Hitler’s inner circle.
However, Ciano quickly became disgusted with the Third Reich and its policies. He was especially disillusioned with the alliance (known as “The Pact of Steel”) that Mussolini and Hitler had created between Germany and Italy. Ciano believed that despite the alliance, Germany ultimately would seek to dominate Italy.
So in 1939, Ciano began keeping diaries, meticulously recording his first-hand observations of Hitler and Mussolini, and other high-ranking Nazis including Heinrich Himmler, the main architect of the Holocaust; Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda; and Joachim Von Ribbentrop, the Third Reich’s Foreign Minister.
The diaries contained state secrets of both nations’ regimes and highly unflattering descriptions of the German and Italian officials, including evidence of their war crimes. The diaries were especially critical of Von Ribbentrop, who had brokered the German-Italian alliance.
By 1943, Ciano, though still a dedicated fascist, rebelled against his father-in-law. At a meeting of Italy’s Fascist Party Grand Counsel in July 1943, Ciano voted to strip Mussolini of his dictatorial powers. As a result, Ciano was forced to flee with his wife Edda and their children to Bavaria, Germany, where he was arrested by the Nazis and returned to Italy.
He was then charged with treason. After a quick trial with a predetermined outcome, Ciano and three others were found guilty. In January 1944, pursuant to his father-in-law’s order, Ciano was executed by a firing squad.
Ciano’s diaries were coveted by many. Mussolini and Hitler wanted them because they documented their war crimes. Von Ribbentrop wanted the diaries for the same reason – to cover up his war crimes.
Himmler and other high-ranking Nazis, who despised Von Ribbentrop, wanted Ciano’s diaries for use against Von Ribbentrop. The Allies wanted the diaries so that they could be used as evidence of war crimes and “crimes against humanity” committed by the Axis powers.
When Ciano was arrested, Edda gave her father and Hitler an ultimatum. If Ciano was not freed from prison, Edda would give her husband’s diaries to the press for publication.
As a result, Hitler and Mussolini concocted a scheme to gain possession of Ciano’s diaries. A beautiful and skilled German spy, Hilde Beetz, was sent to Ciano’s Italian prison to seduce him and find out the location of the diaries.
However, the “law of unintended consequences” intervened. Beetz fell in love with Ciano. The German spy then became a double spy as she joined with Edda to save Ciano from execution. They failed, of course. Once Ciano was killed, Edda, supported by Beetz, fled to Switzerland with most of Ciano’s diaries.
When the OSS (the predecessor to the CIA) learned of Edda’s escape, the agency’s head, Alan Dulles, enlisted Frances de Chollet, an American socialite living in France, to befriend Edda and assist in delivering the diaries to the Americans.
The two women developed a deep friendship and with the support of Beetz, they bravely kept one step ahead of their Nazi pursuers, managing to hide the diaries until they could be handed over to America.
The women hid the diaries in gardens, factories and other locations. Edda even tied them around her waist, concealing five diaries with a refashioned leg of her pajamas. Risking their lives, the three women succeeded; Ciano’s diaries were delivered to the Americans.
As a result of the extraordinary bravery of Edda, Beetz and de Chollet, the Americans were able to use Ciano’s diaries at the Nuremberg trials in 1945-46 to secure convictions of several high-ranking Nazis, including Martin Bormann, Herman Goring and Rudolph Hess.
Von Ribbentrop was the first Nazi to be hanged. Without Ciano’s diaries, these Nazis and others might have been acquitted of their war crimes and “crimes against humanity.” Indeed, Ciano’s diaries have been called one of the most important documents of World War II.
All in all, “Sisters in Resistance” is a thrilling spy story with unimaginable twists and turns. An accomplished author of historical biographies, Mazzeo brilliantly captures the elation and despair that these three brave women experienced in their shared quest to oppose fascism and obtain justice.
It is a riveting story based upon the author’s prodigious research, including first-person interviews with witnesses to the amazing cavalcade of events she describes.
The story of these three courageous women – Edda Ciano, Hilde Beetz and Frances de Chollet – is not generally known even by those who study the history of World War II.
“Sisters in Resistance” serves to remind us of the pivotal roles that women played in the Allied victory in World War II and in bringing Nazis to justice.
It is fitting that during Women’s History Month we remember the exploits of these and other courageous and indomitable women, who, through acts of supreme bravery, fought to make the world safer for Democracy.
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Such a great article it made me order the audiobook. Thanks for sharing this. Another story with a similar theme, though this one fiction, set on Guernsey Island during WWII, is The Daring Girls of Guernsey by Gayle Callen, which I also highly recommend.