The German authorities accepted the units
and at first decided to send one to each front. The young man
assigned to the West front was Goldschmidt Rothschild, one of the
last descendants of the great Frankfort family of Rothschild. He
had been attached to the German Embassy in London before the war.
The one assigned to the unit for the East front was Count Helie
de Talleyrand. Both of these young men spoke English perfectly
and were chosen for that reason, and both have many friends in
England and America.
Talleyrand was of a branch of the celebrated Talleyrand family and
possessed German citizenship. During the Napoleonic era the great
Talleyrand married one of his nephews to a Princess of Courland
who, with her sister, was joint heiress of the principality of
Sagan in Germany. The share of the other sister was bought by
the sister who married young Talleyrand, and the descendants of
that union became princes of Sagan and held the Italian title
of Duke de Dino and the French title of Duke de Valencay.
Some of the descendants of this nephew of the great Talleyrand
remained in Germany, and this young Talleyrand, assigned to the
Red Cross unit, belonged to that branch.
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