Why was the British Monarchy so Pro Nazi?

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Kraichgauer
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19 Jun 2015, 7:09 pm

Rollo wrote:

Hyperborean wrote:

The relationship between the British Royal Family and the Nazis isn't really a great secret, although it doesn't get mentioned very often. Edward VIII, who chose to abdicate because he insisted on marrying an American divorcee, Wallis Simpson, was quite open about his admiration for Hitler. In fact I think he and Wallis met the Führer at one point. But then Edward, like his fellow aristocrats, was too dense to see through the Nazis.

Let's think about this objectively. Before the war, Britain had acquired the largest empire in the world, so it is ridiculous for the British to claim that they went to war with Germany because they really cared about the sovereignty of other nations or because they wanted to save the world from imperialist aggression. Indeed, when the Soviet Union invaded Poland a few days after Germany did, Britain didn't declare war on the Soviet Union.

Hitler didn't want a war with Britain. For one thing, he wanted to see the British Empire preserved, and he didn't think Germany would be able to do it. British Conservatives wanted war with Germany because they were conservatives and ganging up on the most powerful nation on the continent is what the British had "always done" (balance of power and all that).

Churchill himself was an imperialist. He wanted to preserve the British Empire. Presumably Edward VII did too. In which case Edward was the smart one, not Churchill and his fellow conservatives.

In fact, some have suggested that Edward's marriage to Wallis Simpson was just a pretext for removing him from the throne, since even by 1936 his pro-German sympathies were not going down well with anti-German elements in the British establishment.

There is some thought that Hitler had attacked the Soviet Union because he believed the English would switch sides and fight alongside their "Nordic Aryan" cousins in Germany. Obviously, if true, it didn't work.
Hitler was in fact very much an Anglophile, wishing to model a new German empire (the greater Third Reich) on the British Empire.

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19 Jun 2015, 7:17 pm

The_Walrus wrote:

Hyperborean wrote:

A lot of European intellectuals supported Communism because they viewed it as the antidote to Fascism. Many of them fought on the Communist side in the Spanish Civil War.

It wasn't "the Communist side" as such, the Communists were merely a faction of the Republicans (anti-Fascists).

I also think there's a bit of conflation going on here, particularly as the most prominent member of the Communist army in Spain was also the biggest critic of Stalin in the West.

Plenty of Americans had fought on the side of the Spanish anti-fascists, as well, including Ernest Hemingway. Quite a few Black Americans had joined in the fight against the fascists, and had gotten so used to the camaraderie with their white counterparts, that they were in for a huge culture shock when they returned home and found themselves treated like dirt again.

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ruveyn
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20 Jun 2015, 2:23 am

The Royals have German ancestors, so their initial attraction to Germany was understandable.

Queen Victoria was married to a German here children (of which there were many) were all half German. Britain had a German kind, George I. It goes back a long way .

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20 Jun 2015, 2:58 am

ruveyn wrote:

Not only that, but Victoria herself was ethnically German.

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03 Jun 2018, 3:21 pm

No they weren't. Are you watching Alex Jones?

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03 Jun 2018, 5:12 pm

Dylanperr wrote:

No they weren't. Are you watching Alex Jones?

The British king who gave up the throne to marry an American divorcee was certainly sympathetic to the Nazi cause, at least till the war started.

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03 Jun 2018, 11:23 pm

Kraichgauer wrote:

Dylanperr wrote:

No they weren't. Are you watching Alex Jones?

The British king who gave up the throne to marry an American divorcee was certainly sympathetic to the Nazi cause, at least till the war started.

How was he?

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03 Jun 2018, 11:23 pm

Kraichgauer wrote:

Dylanperr wrote:

No they weren't. Are you watching Alex Jones?

The British king who gave up the throne to marry an American divorcee was certainly sympathetic to the Nazi cause, at least till the war started.

How was he?

Kraichgauer
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04 Jun 2018, 1:10 am

Dylanperr wrote:

Kraichgauer wrote:

Dylanperr wrote:

No they weren't. Are you watching Alex Jones?

The British king who gave up the throne to marry an American divorcee was certainly sympathetic to the Nazi cause, at least till the war started.

How was he?

He expressed admiration for the Nazis being able to remake their country in their image, and I would imagine he believed Hitler was the shield of the west against Stalin. Luckily, he had already stepped down from the throne when he was expressing such opinions. Admiration for fascism was shared by many British and American citizens prior to the outbreak of WWII.

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kraftiekortie
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04 Jun 2018, 1:41 pm

Edward VIII certainly had Nazi sympathies.

But maybe in the sense that people like Charles Lindbergh had them.

Maybe in the sense of being anti-Semitic and racist in general---but not going as far as advocating the "final solution."

Not good....but not like the neo-Nazis of today.

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04 Jun 2018, 4:17 pm

Kraichgauer wrote:

Dylanperr wrote:

Kraichgauer wrote:

Dylanperr wrote:

No they weren't. Are you watching Alex Jones?

The British king who gave up the throne to marry an American divorcee was certainly sympathetic to the Nazi cause, at least till the war started.

How was he?

How come Oswald Mosley did not replace Winston Churchill?

Kraichgauer
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04 Jun 2018, 10:47 pm

Dylanperr wrote:

Kraichgauer wrote:

Dylanperr wrote:

Kraichgauer wrote:

Dylanperr wrote:

No they weren't. Are you watching Alex Jones?

The British king who gave up the throne to marry an American divorcee was certainly sympathetic to the Nazi cause, at least till the war started.

How was he?

How come Oswald Mosley did not replace Winston Churchill?

I couldn't say.

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Claradoon
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14 Jun 2018, 10:12 am

I thought the Nazi plan was to conquer England and restore Edward & Wife to throne as King (and Queen?). But they didn't reckon with QEII, who stayed in England on the throne and refused to escape to Canada, and Winston Churchill.

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