March 13, 1943. That morning, Muriel, Countess Seherr-Thoss, felt "agitated" as she told her staff at Schloss Dobrau to review their strategies and drills for taking shelter.
Schloss Dobrau was one of the Scherr-Thoss properties in Silesia, where her former husband, Hermann, once served in the Prussian House of Lords before Poland's independence. German troops occupied the area during World War II.
Earlier in the year, the Nazis seized their property and revoked Marian and her sons' citizenships. She also arranged for Hermann's escape. The Nazis were determined to break Muriel. She had feared their arrival because she knew she would be sent to a concentration camp.
The Gestapo demanded that Muriel bring her two sons back to Germany. Shortly after the outbreak of World War II, Muriel sent her two sons, Hans Christopher and Hermann, and their older sister, Margaret, to her family in America. She refused, and she gave her life for that decision. As early as 1939, she provided assistance to Jews seeking to flee Germany.
Margaret Muriel White was born in Paris in 1880, the daughter of U.S. diplomat Henry White and Daisy Rutherford. She had an impeccable lineage, a descendant of several important families: Morris, Stuyvesant, Rutherfurd. She was a great-great-great-granddaughter of Lewis Morris, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. One of Daisy's brothers was Winthrop Rutherfurd, the putative fiancé of Consuelo Vanderbilt. His second wife was Lucy Mercer, Franklin D. Roosevelt's mistress.
Muriel was raised in London and Paris. She was a well-educated, multi-lingual dollar princess, whose father was a respected diplomat and ambassador. Unfortunately, her marital chances were thwarted by her mother, who did not include two of the most important women in Roman society at a grand event she hosted. The Princess di San Faustino, an American by birth, and her best friend, the Duchess of Grazioli "exacted their revenge" on Muriel. The two women knew that Viscount Lascelles was in love with Muriel and had gone to Rome to propose to her. Because they were not invited to Daisy's reception, they chose not to help Lord Lascelles woo Muriel White.
[Jane Allen Campbell (1865-1938) was the great-grandmother of the late Princess Ira of Fürstenberg]
Other suitors included Austen Chamberlain, the half-brother of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. Muriel was 28 when she met her future husband, Count Hermann Seherr-Thoss. They married in 1910.
Richard Jay Hutto is an American historian who specializes in Gilded Age American heiresses who married into British and European royalty and nobility.
Muriel and her inheritance maintained and renovated Hermann's properties. She watched as the borders changed following the end of World War I—her father was one of the signatories of the Versailles Peace Treaty.
Unlike many other members of the German nobility, Muriel was aghast when the Nazis took power in 1933. She was a vocal opponent of their encroaching power. Although she lost her German citizenship when she married, she remained an independent-minded woman, unafraid to speak her mind. Her former husband's only concern was his properties.
Muriel was also a much-loved mentor to her husband's Hungarian-American countess, Geraldine Apponyi de Nagy Apponyi, who married King Zog of Albania. Geraldine's mother, Gladys Virginia Steuart, was the daughter of an American diplomat. Geraldine's paternal grandmother, Countess Margarete Seherr-Thoss, was Count Hermann's aunt. The future Queen of Albania's father, Count Gyula, and Muriel's husband were first cousins.
Muriel was a guest at Geraldine's wedding and was "summoned to Tirana again in 1939," when Geraldine was about to give birth to her only child, Prince Leka. Albania's independence was fragile and about to collapse as Italy was about to invade the small nation. King Zog was concerned about his wife and their newborn son, and made plans to evacuate them. Using her own diplomatic connections with American officials in Tirana, Muriel helped arrange Geraldine and her son's departure before the Italians arrived.
It was the last time Muriel saw her husband's first cousin once removed. She returned to her home, never again to leave. On March 13, 1943, the Gestapo arrived at Schloss Dobrau to arrest Muriel. She walked up to the highest place in the castle and jumped to her death.
Hutto brings Muriel's story to life. Yes, she was a dollar princess, but one who understood the intricacies of diplomacy and the importance of family. The book's final chapter includes information on her three children and their families, all remaining in the United States.
The author has done extensive research, bringing Muriel's unique life to the forefront. Muriel's descendants cooperated with Rick Hutto, providing documents, photos, and first-hand accounts of her exceptional life.
The Countess and the Nazis is an excellent read and highly recommended.
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