Pre-war Britain had a small, politically impotent and often-feuding network of fascist and pro-German groups: the Imperial Fascist League which was led by Arnold Leese, a rabidly anti-Semitic former veterinary surgeon; Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists; and the short-lived National Socialist League, a break-away from the BUF which itself later morphed into the British Council for Christian Settlement in Europe and the British People’s party.
More genteel Nazi sympathizers gravitated towards less-threatening sounding groups such as The Link (a Berlin-funded propaganda group led by a retired senior admiral, Barry Domvile, which supposedly promoted Anglo-German friendship and understanding) and the Nordic League. Beneath the veneer of respectability, the League – with its motto of “Perish Judah” – hosted meetings at which speakers praised Hitler and advocated murdering Jews, and its leadership had close links to the German Embassy.
Mosley’s footsoldiers were engaged in acts of espionage and sabotage: damaging public phones boxes to hamper communications during air raids; mapping the locations of aerodromes and RAF stations; and sketching the sites of local munitions factories. One 16-year-old was even found to have set fire to houses during the height of the Blitz with the aim of helping guide the Luftwaffe towards their targets.
Those caught were prosecuted and imprisoned, although in a pattern that was to be repeated throughout the war, the well-to-do and well-connected frequently escaped punishment.
Tim Tate's new book details the spying, sabotage and conspiracies of Fifth Columnists who worked in wartime UK to help see Hitler's troops 'goose-step down Whitehall'
www.timesofisrael.com
Lot of Nazi sympathizers in Britain during WWII. Most hated Jews.
www.theguardian.com
