History records that during the 1930s, when Adolf Hitler’s grip on Europe was tightening, Britain’s Government, led by Ramsey MacDonald, Stanley Baldwin, then Neville Chamberlain, pursued a policy of appeasement in the mistaken belief that this would control the spread of Nazism and help sustain a shaky peace.
With the horrors of the 1914/18 war still fresh in many minds, this policy was widely applauded, but by 1940 its disastrous consequences were only too apparent. At best the Government’s actions were seen as naïve or, at worst, an abandonment of their responsibilities. Some, like Winston Churchill, came to believe that many of Britain’s ruling class had become beguiled by Hitler and greatly admired, even envied, him for his ability to restore Germany to a position of eminence in the world. In so doing, they appeared to conveniently ignore slowly emerging reports of repression, persecution and genocide. It was an inconvenient truth.
In many ways the attitude towards Germany in the 1930s was shaped by the growing belief that the 1919 Treaty of Versailles had been too harsh. Some came to see it as more concerned with revenge, blame and reparations than establishing peace and working democracies across Europe. With poverty and starvation the lot of many within its borders the result, it is little wonder that the German people came to believe that the Allied powers and Versailles were to blame for all their ills. The financial recessions that hit the western world in the 1920s and early ’30s and hyper-inflation only added to the instability. It is, then, perhaps little wonder that when Hitler seemed to offer a better future and national revival, many were captivated by his message and elevated him to near Messiah status when things appeared to improve. And so the path to dictatorship and the loss of democracy was set, with war and death for millions soon to follow.
Admiration for Hitler permeated many layers of British society. There were some like the fascist Oswald Mosely who actively promoted Hitler’s dangerous fantasies and others who simply held strong anti-semitic, ultra-right wing views. Then there were those who viewed with envy the way Hitler was bringing disruptive elements in his country to heel ‘for the greater good’. They believed there were unacceptable threats to the established order emanating from the rise of trades unions in post-Great War Britain and the growing clamour for equality and civil rights. They feared revolution and so these ‘disruptive’
