Princess Mafalda and her three sons

  @Marlene A Eilers Koenig collection I was recently given a lovely gift of several dozen royal photos from the 1930s to the 60s. I cannot say thank you enough for the gifter's kindness.   This photo was taken in the summer of 1937 at the Villa Savoia in Rome and shows Hereditary Princess Mafalda of Hesse (1902-1944), the wife of Hereditary Prince Philipp of Hesse (1896-1980), and their three sons: Prince Moritz (1926-2013), Prince Heinrich (1927-1999) and Prince Otto (1937-1998). Prince Philipp was the third, but the eldest surviving son of Friedrich Karl, Landgrave of Hesse (1868-1940), and Princess Margarete of Prussia (1872-1954). His two older brothers, Princes Friedrich Wilhelm and Maximilian were killed in action in the first world war.   Princess Mafalda was the second daughter of King Vittorio Emanuele III of Italy and Princess Elena of Montenegro. In September 1943, Mafalda was in Bulgaria to attend the funeral of her brother-in-law King Boris III, when she learned that Italy had surrendered to the Allies and her husband, a high Nazi official was under house arrest. She was also told that her four children were safe inside the Vatican. Not long afterward, on September 23, she received a phone call from the German High Command and was told to come to the German embassy to receive a message from her husband. It was all a ruse.  When Princess Mafalda arrived at the embassy, she was arrested for what has been described as subversive activities, and she was taken to Munich, then Berlin before being sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp She died at Buchenwald on August 27, 1944, three days after the Allies bombed an ammunition factory at the camp. She suffered severe burns to one arm. A doctor amputated her arm and she died due to blood loss.   Prince Philipp succeeded his father as Landgrave in 1940. The wedding of Moritz, Landgrave of Hesse, and Princess Tatiana of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg @Marlene A Eilers Koenig collection
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