Wednesday 29 August 2012

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.

4 comments:

  1. I am quite sure that if you dug around you could find a few Commies in Thanet who thought the USSR was some socialist utopia back in cold war days and would have happily sold out this country to the KGB. Why do I doubt that Thanet Watch will run an article on communism in Thanet.

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  2. Doubt no more! Watch out for future issues!
    Christine

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  3. We do have a blue plaque for Karl Marx in Ramsgate who was the co author of The Communist Manifesto so I guess it will all be rather down hill from there.

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  4. One up for Ramsgate! Broadstairs had Lord Haw Haw!
    Christine

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