Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor defect to Nazi Germany 1940 ?

I know this has been talked a lot about the last 10 years. But as history tells the previous King of England Edward the 8th was by al definition (according to historians) a Nazi. After having watched several documentaries on the matter which tells that during an event in Portugal around 1940, that for a moment Edward and Miss. Simpson had considered defecting to Nazi Germany. But that Churchill threatened to release some papers to the world public in the regards Miss. Simpsons, which made Edward rethink their defecting.

But what if Edward and Miss. Simpsons had defected to Nazi Germany from Portugal anyway ? So that Edward had been become an OTL Lord Haw Haw ? Could this have been pushed under the table? Or would the british have forced to try Edward for treason post WW2?
 
Define Nazi.

The Duke of Windsor was naive and was prone to making statements which in hindsight were unacceptable. However he wasn't alone in that - most of the British government before Czechoslovakia made sympathetic noises towards the Germans in order to appease them. He also did reveal some military sensitive information to the Germans pre-France through incompetence and a desire to avoid a conflict.

That doesn't make him a card carrying Nazi anymore than wearing the uniform of the Wehrmacht made you a Nazi.
 
In the history channel US documentary about the Edward a former UK diplomat tells that Edward in the 1950s said at the social gathering, that people of jewish faith caused WW2.

Which is an infamous neo-Nazi conspiracy theory. Maybe he wasn't a right arm in the air Nazi, but clearly his views closely resembled one.
 
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A lot of people in the 1930s had sympathies with Nazi Germany, though the Nazis they liked represented order, progress, dynamism. A superficial view you could easily have of Nazi Germany from abroad (yo propaganda, look at those shiny autobahns!) The repression, brutality and especially the liquidation of people just because of who they were would not have registered for a while. Now if they still had those sympathies later on, especially once the war had started then that is something else.
 
Sympathizer? Yes.

Nazi? Er, no.

  • A stupid, silly, spoilt, cossetted, overly privileged man with little grasp of the real world. Certainly.
  • Nazi sympathizer? Perhaps.
  • Nazi: No.

And i don't care what sensational TV programmes, especially, American TV programmes, have to say.

A lot of people in the 1930s had sympathies with Nazi Germany, though the Nazis they liked represented order, progress, dynamism. A superficial view you could easily have of Nazi Germany from abroad (yo propaganda, look at those shiny autobahns!) The repression, brutality and especially the liquidation of people just because of who they were would not have registered for a while. Now if they still had those sympathies later on, especially once the war had started then that is something else.

Indeed - and there was a strand of sympathy for the Nazi in the early 30's amoungst the upper class. I think because they feared the rise of communism and them being dragged out and shot in the revolution they feared was just around the corner. They felt the Nazi was a bulwark against that happening. The scales fell away by the late 30's!

In the history channel US documentary about the Edward a former UK diplomat tells that Edward in the 1950s said at the social gathering, that people of jewish faith caused WW2.

Antisemitism was a well defined view of much the UK upper classes in the interwar period.
 
Indeed - and there was a strand of sympathy for the Nazi in the early 30's amoungst the upper class. I think because they feared the rise of communism and them being dragged out and shot in the revolution they feared was just around the corner. They felt the Nazi was a bulwark against that happening. The scales fell away by the late 30's!

The old order had been either destroyed or discredited by WW1, the future was seen by many to be either communist or fascist. Both had their idealised views of course, some still have them.
 
In the history channel US documentary about the Edward a former UK diplomat tells that Edward in the 1950s said at the social gathering, that people of jewish faith caused WW2.

Which is an infamous neo-Nazi conspiracy theory. Maybe he wasn't a right arm in the air Nazi, but clearly his views closely resembled one.
Are we considering Henry Ford defecting to the Nazis as well?

Or do you accept that despite their abhorrent social views both men did what they thought best for their country and did not support the German Nazis in WW2.
 
I think even in 1940 before the German attack he was at best loose-tongued when speaking to known Nazi sympathisers, he was very reluctant, to leave the Continent after the fall of France, and even when he was in Bermuda - he didn't do his country any favours, seeming to believe the hype of the Luftwaffe's ability to flatten Britain. While Britain was trying to garner support from Americans, he was doing the opposite.

Yet, even if he was lauded in the corridors of power in Berlin, what could the result be - he might have wished to be restored to the throne - with German support, but that wasn't going to happen, it would be a propaganda coup for the Germans (wonder how the Russians would view it), and wonder if the Hess mission would end any differently.
 
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