WHAT WERE THREE NAZIS DOING IN BROADSTAIRS

A Nazi spy operates from a bungalow. A man who became the infamous Lord Haw-Haw teaches at a local school.  A monocled conman sells fascist literature in the high street.

Amazingly, three extraordinary Nazi figures were at work in the sleepy resort of Broadstairs, East Kent in the 1930s – and now a new article published this week, argues that their activities were NOT a coincidence.

The article’s author Norman Thomas said: “I think it has to be more than a coincidence that these exceptional pro-Nazi characters were all active in Broadstairs in the years before the war.”

Mr Thomas’s article tells the strange story of the three Nazis and how they came to be in Broadstairs in the 1930s.

The Nazis were William “Lord Haw Haw” Joyce who broadcasting pro-Nazi propaganda from Berlin during the war, Arthur Tester who lived in a mansion on the North Foreland estate above Broadstairs and Hermann Goertz, a German spy who lived in a bungalow in Broadstairs while he collected information about Britain’s air defences.

Mr Thomas believes the three Broadstairs Nazis were working together – and possibly working on a plot to undermine Britain’s defences.

“These men were all maverick operators,” Mr Thomas said. “They were all strong believers in the victory of Nazi Germany over Europe, and they all came to Broadstairs in the years immediately before the outbreak of war.

“I believe they had a common aim – and that was to help Hitler achieve his ultimate victory.”

The article is the first in a series about the history of fascism in Thanet, East Kent, which will be published in the September issue of the monthly Thanet Watch magazine.