As Adolf Hitler plunged the whole world into war in 1939, German army generals and politicians would simply jump at his command. But, just two years earlier, the Nazi dictator lacked charisma to attract even the attention of a petty servant, the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, who is the sole surviving Mitford sister, has claimed here.

The 87-year-old is the last of the six aristocratic Mitford sisters who achieved contemporary notoriety for their controversial and stylish lifestyle in 1920-30s. One of the sisters Unity became so infatuated with Hitler that she had shot herself in the head the day the World War II broke out.

In an interview to The Sunday Telegraph’s Seven magazine, Deborah Mitford has recalled that when she had visited Hitler, along with Unity and their mother, in Munich in June 1937, no one responded when the dictator repeatedly rang a bell to summon a servant to serve tea.

“One or two odd things happened at that tea. My mother and I were quite dirty because we’d come in an open car from Austria, so we went to wash in his bathroom.

“Hitler’s towels, I remember, had AH embroidered on them. I’ve always thought that was so strange, so unlike what you would expect of someone like that. I remember, too, that he rang a bell several times and no one came. That was a bit odd, too,” Mitford was quoted as saying.

Refusing that she also had a crush on Hitler like her sister, Mitford said, “If you sat in a room with Churchill you were aware of this tremendous charisma. Kennedy had it too. But Hitler didn’t — not to me anyway.” Instead, she claimed, she had fallen for a cafe violinist.