The Countess and the Nazis

“Muriel Seherr-Thoss chose resistance over her privilege. Many family photos enliven this engrossing, recommended history that will take readers right into the difficult times it depicts.”

“Hutto brings to light the fascinating story of Muriel White... an exhilarating account of principled antifascism.”

“The Countess and the Nazis is a fascinating, well-crafted exposé of an unsung hero of World War II, the Countess Muriel Sherr-Thoss… Richard Jay Hutto brings to life a rich and vivid description of this gilded, glamorous American family, living among royalty and the wealthiest families in the world. His writing style is eloquent, vivid, and concise. Yet Hutto is careful to let the research tell the story, allowing the multitude of family letters to narrate effectively. This book is well-researched with dozens of pages of references. Readers will be grateful for the myriad pictures and the detailed family diagram. The author carefully resurrects an unknown hero of World War II, whose heart is filled with a powerful purpose to save innocent lives.”

“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 their exceptional life. The Countess and the Nazis is an excellent read and highly recommended.”

"Hutto's deeply researched narrative is not quite biography, not quite political history, but something more intimate: a portrait of one woman's slow, lonely moral reckoning, rendered through missives, memories, and margins. . . . The human and historical ache at the heart of the book is hard to shake."

“ [The Countess and the Nazis] is a fascinating addition to the growing genre of women who stood up to the Nazis, often at personal cost.”

"With extensive knowledge and prodigious research, Richard Jay Hutto has unearthed an extraordinary saga, ultimately tragic, proving once again that rich American girls should have nothing to do with unworthy European aristocrats. The book has an important subplot: the poignant story of Queen Geraldine of the Albanians. A most enjoyable read."

In Richard Jay Hutto’s The Countess and the Nazis, the only biography of Muriel White, a heroine relegated to a forgotten footnote of history, the author resurrects her remarkable story.

A Gilded Age American heiress with an impeccable social pedigree marries nobleman Count Hermann Seherr-Thoss of Prussian Silesia on the eve of World War I—and then all hell breaks loose. Richard Jay Hutto’s The Countess and the Nazis has glamour to spare, brand names from Queen Victoria to Ian Fleming, and international intrigue of the highest order—all played out in one family’s story.

Richard Jay Hutto’s The Countess and the Nazis is a vividly detailed account of rich Americans and European aristocrats, from the glamour of the Gilded Age to the deadly dangers of the Third Reich. At the heart of the story is the complex and courageous American heiress Muriel White, Countess Seherr-Thoss, who engages the reader from the dramatic first page through the rest of her turbulent life. Hutto describes her world and its famous and infamous characters as though he knew them all.

This compelling tale traces the intricately intertwined history of American high society with European nobility in the face of rising Nazism. A haunting saga of family in the turmoil and tragedy of the twentieth century.