chapter 13 William Joyce, Lord Haw-Haw and the German Connection

Colin Holmes

Abstract

William Joyce was a Fascist, an anti-Semite and a traitor. He achieved particu- lar notoriety during the Second World War when, operating mainly out of Berlin, he served as a radio propagandist for the Nazis. Why did Joyce’s life unfold in this way? How was he affected by the politics of the 1930s? What contact did he have with Germans in pre-war Britain? How did his wartime career with the Nazis work out? How finally did he view his political adventure with Hitler which eventually sealed his fate?

1

It is a privilege to contribute to this memorial volume dedicated to Hamish Ritchie. We were never in the same Department. Our disciplines were differ- ent. But he showed an intellectual curiosity in my work and was always encour- aging. It seems strange that he is no longer with us. As I pass through the University I imagine that at some point I shall meet his large, commanding, jovial presence.

2

Few people can be unaware of William Joyce, often better known as Lord Haw-Haw. Joyce, who held a us birth certificate suggesting he was born in New York in 1906, spent his early life in America before moving with his parents to Ireland in 1909. He left there hastily in 1921 on account of his political beliefs. He and his family were and remained staunch opponents of Irish nationalism. Arriving on his own in England – his parents and their other children followed later – he attached himself first to the Tory Party but from the early 1920s began to operate in Fascist circles with the group known as the British Fascists. He then joined the British Union of Fascists (buf) which Sir Oswald Mosley

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2015 | doi 10.1163/9789004296398_014

260 Holmes formed in 1932. Five years later Joyce started his own party, the National Socialist League (the nsl). In the late ’30s he also became deeply involved in the fellow-travelling groups then sprouting in Britain, whose members were sympathetic to Hitler and Nazism. In line with his developing political beliefs, in late August 1939 he left for Germany and throughout the war worked as a dedicated servant of Nazism. On account of his radio broadcasts, delivered mainly from Berlin, he soon became notorious and among the British public was widely hated and generally despised. Captured at Flensburg in 1945, he was soon returned to Britain, tried at the Old Bailey and, following a contro- versial legal ruling, executed on 3 January 1946.1 The later part of Joyce’s political career brought him into contact with the Nazi state. However, German wartime sources do not refer to him as a major presence in the dramatis personae of those years. Much to his chagrin he never met Hitler. He never shook the hand of Joseph Goebbels, one of his everlasting heroes. Even though they never met, the Nazi propagandist was full of praise for Joyce’s work, remarking on one occasion that he was an absolute jewel and on another, the best horse in our stable. Goebbels did not keep such compli- mentary thoughts to himself. He lauded Joyce’s efforts in meetings with the Führer.2

3

When Britain’s Fascists, especially sources close to Oswald Mosley and the buf, discuss the politics of the Hitlerite period, they emphasise that Fascism in Britain was quite different from German National Socialism. When making this point Joyce has often been used as a whipping boy. Mosley was a patriot: Joyce, by contrast, was infected by what ‘The Leader’ (Mosley) delicately termed “the international mind.”3 This distinction is fraudulent. From an early stage Mosley’s party entered into contact with the Nazis and attempted to bond with them. buf representa- tives journeyed to marvel at what they regarded as the delights of Nazism,

1 John Alfred Cole: Lord Haw-Haw – And William Joyce: The Full Story. London: Faber and Faber 1964, was the first biography. All later references are to the 1987 paperback edition which carried the title Lord Haw-Haw: The Full Story of William Joyce. The latest study is Nigel Farndale: Haw-Haw. The Tragedy of William and Margaret Joyce. London: Macmillan 2005. 2 Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels. Ed. by Elke Fröhlich. München: K.G. Sauer 1998. Vol. 7, July 1939–March 1940, p. 348 (14 March 1940); Ibid. Vol. 9, December 1940–July 1941, p. 210 (29 March 1941); and Ibid. Vol. 7, p. 350 (15 March 1940). 3 The National Archives, London (henceforth tna), ho 283/13/61.