The drift towards war in 1939 posed particular problems for Britain's fascists. In the period leading up to September 1939 fascist sympathisers had engaged in a number of attempts to prevent a war between Britain and Nazi Germany. Fascists, as well as some other sections of British society regarded Germany as a bulwark against the expansion of Bolshevism. But there was another problem for British fascists which encouraged then to adopt an anti-war stance. It was not merely that a weakened West could fall prey to Bolshevism. Notwithstanding their emphasis on "Britain First", Nazi Germany was an ideological home for various fascist groups in Britain. Better the Nazi jackboot than the continued influence of the Jew, commented one well known British historian sympathetic to fascism. The Italian example had been the early influence but in the course of the 1930s British leaders such as Oswald Mosley strengthened the links between British fascists and the Nazis. There were visits to the fascist homeland. It is possible to spot British fascists on photographs taken at Nazi rallies. Moreover, personal contacts developed in Britain, particularly in London where the Nazis cultivated sympathisers. Journalists such as Christian Bauer, a correspondent of Der Angriff, was one of a number of Nazis who entered into contact with fascists such as John Beckett and William Joyce. The former, at least, was introduced to Bauer by Oswald Mosley, which demonstrates that these links extended to the highest level of British fascism. However, the war could not be avoided. Even so, no immediate action was taken against Britain's fascists. In the early days of the war some former members of the British Union of Fascists (BUF), the organisation that Mosley had formed in 1932, did put their country first and proceeded to join the armed forces. A number of them subsequently died in the conflict. Their names now appear regularly on the pages of Comrade, the journal run by Mosley's supporters now growing old. But the activities of the wartime patriots is dwarfed by the number of British fascists who did not fight. In the initial period of the conflict, the so-called "phoney war", fascists who remained at liberty continued with their political activities. Indeed, in 1940 British Union candidates fought three by-elections at Silvertown, North East Leeds and Middleton and Prestwich. Such elections formed part of a wider framework of political activity, with rallies in London and Manchester assuming particular significance. All such engagement stemmed from an opposition to the war. However, circumstances changed dramatically in spring 1940 when the prospect of a Nazi invasion loomed nearer. Once again, as in the Napoleonic era, Britain stood alone, "the last that dare to struggle with the foe", as Wordsworth wrote in that earlier conflict. In the perilous days of spring 1940 Britain's fabled toleration evaporated. The state began to intern enemy aliens. The fact that these people were refugees from Nazi terror counted for nothing. By summer 1941 this process of rounding up Austrians, Germans, Italians, as well as a number of nationals of other countries had been completed. Around the same time, under Defence Regulation 18b, the state interned fascist sympathisers, British men and women who, it was believed, might become a fifth column. Mosley was detained along with his wife. Among BUF members Alexander Raven Thomson, the party's leading ideologist, and Neil Francis-Hawkins, its organisational expert, were rounded up. However, internees were not drawn only from Mosley's group. Arnold Leese, the fanatical antisemite and leading figure in the Imperial Fascist League, who believed in the "Blood libel" charge and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, was also put away.
When the tide of war turned in Britain's favour, the authorities relaxed their policy. Mosley was released in November 1943 against a loud chorus of disapproval from his political opponents, who believed he should have been detained for the duration of the war. His ill health, an attack of phlebitis, was a convenient justification for the softer line. In contrast, Leese, who not only enjoyed rude health but also had fewer contacts than Mosley with the British political establishment and furthermore was associated with a cruder, more robust form of fascism, was detained for longer. What is less generally known is that throughout the war some individuals and groups sympathetic to the cause of fascism remained at liberty to promulgate their ideologies. The anti-Catholic and antisemitic Alexander Ratcliffe, seduced by Hitlerism after a visit to Germany in 1939 and an early revisionist, who denied the Holocaust as early as 1943, yearned to become a martyr. But the authorities did not move against him. The Home Office realised Ratcliffe's game. Moreover, The Britons, the organisation which has been so important in peddling the myth of a Jewish world conspiracy through its publication of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a well-worn text in fascist circles, was allowed to continue publishing throughout the war. As result fascist sympathies still circulated in wartime Britain. Furthermore, at a time when Europe's Jews were being systematically liquidated, antisemitic works continued to be published in Britain and anti-Jewish sentiment could still be heard, both within and indeed beyond fascist circles. While such developments were taking place, some individuals who had belonged to fascist groups in Britain threw in their lot with the Nazis. Joyce, who had been Director of Propaganda in the BUF, made radio broadcasts for the Nazis between 1939 and 1945. He was not alone. John Amery, the son of Leo Amery, also engaged in propaganda work for the Third Reich. Amery also helped raise that motley band of recruits drawn from British POWs who volunteered to fight in the Nazi cause. Some of these men had been involved earlier in fascism in Britain. Both Joyce and Amery were executed after the war for treason, as was the lesser-known Theodore Schurch, who had once been a member of the BUF. But the authorities dealt leniently with other broadcasters and also with the servicemen who went over to the Germans. Indeed, in one well known case relating to the latter no charges have ever been pressed.
By 1945 the thousand year Reich lay in ruins. Those who had backed it had plunged onto a loser. But the political careers of British fascists such as Mosley, who had survived the war, had not reached their end. "The Leader" soon revived his political activities through the Union Movement. Leese too quickly picked up the threads of his political life. He had learned nothing and retracted nothing and educated a postwar generation in his extreme tradition. Mosley's former foot soldiers and later sympathisers have more recently attempted to distance themselves from the traitors who supported the Nazis and simultaneously present the fascist internees, or at least those who belonged to the BUF, as patriots who posed no danger to Britain, but nevertheless suffered political martyrdom on account of their political beliefs. But a full appreciation of the struggle in which Britain was engaged between 1939 and 1945 would call these claims into question. It overlooks the direct involvement in the Nazi cause of individuals with backgrounds in the BUF. As for the internees, whatever the rigours they faced during their incarceration and any subsequent difficulties they encountered, they were fortunate to have been treated so lightly. It requires no great leap of the historical imagination to think of reasons why their fates might have been very different. |
|
1940 "Germany Calling" - William Joyce (Lord Haw Haw) broadcasts for the Nazis
1945 It could have happened here - British troops were horrified to discover the reality of Nazi policy when they liberated Belsen concentration camp