January 3, 2022 • 10 mins
On this day in 1946, William Joyce, better known to the British as Lord Haw-Haw, was put to death for betraying his country on behalf of Nazi Germany.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio. Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class,
a show that proves there's more than one way to
make history. I'm Gabe Lousier and today we're looking at
the story of one of England's most notorious turn coats,
(00:20):
a scornful radio broadcaster who taunted the British public all
through World War Two. The day was January third. William Joyce,
better known to the British as Lord haw Haw, was
(00:42):
put to death for betraying his country on behalf of
Nazi Germany. For six years, beginning in nineteen thirty nine,
Joyce broadcasted anti British propaganda over the radio. He was
quickly given the nickname Lord ha Ha by the British
press because of his cosmopolitan accent and his smug, sneering voice.
(01:05):
He began each nightly bulletin by announcing Germany Calling, Germany Calling,
and then he would give a round up of the
latest war news, or at least the stories that were
flattering to Germany. The show's menacing, mocking tone was meant
to chip away at British morale, as were its frequent
suggestions that the British should just give up and surrender.
(01:29):
During the war, Joyce broadcast from behind German lines, careful
to spit his venom only from a safe distance. However,
when the Nazi regime finally fell, Lord haw Haw had
nowhere left to hide. William Joyce was executed for high
treason against the British Crown, but his nationality was a
(01:52):
little more complicated than that suggests. He was actually an
American born in Brooklyn, New York in nineteen o six X.
His parents were both from Ireland, and his father had
become a naturalized US citizen ten years earlier. The family
moved back to Galway, Ireland when Joyce was three years old.
(02:13):
He grew up there and then moved to England when
he was just fourteen. There he lied about his age
and wound up being recruited as a courier for the
British Army during the Irish War for Independence. When it
was discovered that he was under age, Joyce was dismissed
from service, but decided to remain in London. He enrolled
(02:35):
in Birkebeck College, and it was during his studies that
he first began to flirt with the idea of fascism.
One day, Joyce attended a meeting for a Conservative Party
candidate and a fight broke out in the crowd. Joyce
was slashed with a razor along the right side of
his face, and the attack left him with a deep
(02:56):
scar that ran all the way from his ear lobe
to the corner of his health. He described as attackers
as Jewish communists, and later used the event as justification
for joining the fascist movement. In nineteen thirty two, Joyce
made his support official by joining the British Union of Fascists,
a political party founded that same year. Joyce quickly climbed
(03:20):
the ranks of the group and became its director of
propaganda in nineteen thirty four. He had a way with words,
but as time went on, his rhetoric became more and
more aggressive and overtly anti Semitic. In late August of
nineteen thirty nine, just before the official start of World
War Two, Joyce and his wife Margaret, traveled to Germany
(03:44):
on British passports. Joyce had obtained his passport one year
earlier by pretending to be a British subject when he
was in fact an American citizen. Once the war had
officially begun, Joyce renounced his phony British sizenship and became
a German citizen instead. He then traveled to Berlin, where
(04:05):
he joined the Reish Ministry of Propaganda and began hosting
his radio show Germany Calling. The head of the Ministry,
Joseph Goebbels, selected Joyce largely because he was a foreign fascist.
It was hoped that Joyce's clipped British accent would make
Nazi propaganda more compelling and palatable to listeners and Allied countries.
(04:30):
At first, Joyce's broadcasts were simply aimed at sewing division
among the British populace, and for that he stuck close
to the fascist playbook, pitting the classes against each other,
undermining trust in the government, and scapegoating minorities. British citizens
were discouraged from listening to the German broadcast, but many
(04:51):
did so anyway. In fact, the show drew an estimated
six million regular listeners in eighteen million occasional list nurse
throughout the United Kingdom. Some people thought Joyce's fiery rhetoric
was a lively counterpoint to the somber broadcasts of the BBC.
Others wanted to hear an uncensored report on German victories,
(05:14):
and were willing to put up with Lord Hahaw to
get it. However, as the war went on, Joyce's propaganda
turned increasingly caustic. By May of nineteen forty he was
threatening British citizens with invasion and urging them to switch
sides before it was too late. The broadcasts lost their
(05:34):
appeal from that point on, and most citizens began to
view them as a genuine threat to the country. Of course,
Lord Hahaw didn't care what the British public thought of him.
He continued broadcasting throughout the war, moving from one German
town to another to avoid Allied bombing raids. Then, at last,
(05:55):
on the evening of April thirty, nineteen forty five, Lord
ha Ha recorded his final broadcast. The show came in
the final days of the Battle of Berlin, just a
few hours before Adolph Hitler shot himself in his bunker.
As you might expect, the final broadcast wasn't Joyce's best work.
(06:17):
Given the circumstances. He was noticeably drunk, and his tirades
were far more rambling and incoherent than usual. I am
talking to about Germany that is a concept that many
of you may have failed to understand. Let me tell you, Ingemann,
(06:45):
the head and of strength, let me hello here. We
have a united people a month ablishes, not impared it.
They don't want to take what doesn't belonged to him all.
(07:08):
They wanted to live their own and blind. After signing
off with a farewell hile to the FurReal, Joyce fled
with his wife to a small village on the border
of Germany and Denmark. They hid there until May, when
Joyce was found and arrested by British intelligence officers who
(07:31):
get this recognized his voice from the radio. He was
handed over to British military police and then taken to
London to stand trial on three counts of high treason.
The question of jurisdiction loomed large in the case. Joyce
did have a British passport, but he only got it
(07:52):
by lying about his country of origin. Otherwise he had
only ever been an American or German citizen, and now
either of those can be charged with treason against Great Britain.
In the end, the jury decided that the passport was valid,
but that Joyce couldn't be charged with treason for anything
he did after it expired in nineteen forty. That decision
(08:15):
led to Joyce being acquitted on two of the three counts. However,
the last count was for broadcasts he had made between
nineteen thirty nine and early nineteen forty when his passport
was still valid. On that final count, Joyce was found
guilty and sentenced to death on September nine, nineteen forty five.
(08:38):
Joyce appealed the verdict but was dismissed by the House
of Lords. On January third, nineteen forty six, he was
taken to Wandsworth Prison and hanged at nine am that morning.
It was later reported that Joyce remained remorseless up to
his death, but made no complaint about his execution. A
(08:59):
formal notice of his death was posted outside the prison,
where about two hundred and fifty spectators had gathered. His
body was shown to the jury that convicted him upon
their request, and was then buried in an unmarked grave
on the prison grounds. Thirty years later, Joyce's daughter successfully
(09:20):
petitioned to have his body exhumed and returned to his
childhood home in Ireland. Even in death, there was still
a question as to where William Joyce belonged. He was
a natural born citizen of the United States, raised in Ireland,
educated in England, adopted by Germany. However, his identity was
(09:42):
defined more by his commitment to fascist ideology than by
any allegiance to a specific country or people. That blind
devotion is what made Joyce such an effective propagandist, but
it's ultimately what cost him his life as well. I
I'm Gabe Louisier, and hopefully you now know a little
(10:03):
more about history today than you did yesterday. If you
have a second and you're so inclined, consider following us
on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at t D I HC show.
You can also leave us a review on Apple Podcasts,
and you can write to us directly at this day
at I heart media dot com. Thanks as always the
(10:25):
channel or Mays for producing the show, and thanks to
you for listening. I'll see you back here again tomorrow
for another Day in History class. For more podcasts from
I heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
(10:47):
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio. Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class,
a show that proves there's more than one way to
make history. I'm Gabe Lousier and today we're looking at
the story of one of England's most notorious turn coats,
(00:20):
a scornful radio broadcaster who taunted the British public all
through World War Two. The day was January third. William Joyce,
better known to the British as Lord haw Haw, was
(00:42):
put to death for betraying his country on behalf of
Nazi Germany. For six years, beginning in nineteen thirty nine,
Joyce broadcasted anti British propaganda over the radio. He was
quickly given the nickname Lord ha Ha by the British
press because of his cosmopolitan accent and his smug, sneering voice.
(01:05):
He began each nightly bulletin by announcing Germany Calling, Germany Calling,
and then he would give a round up of the
latest war news, or at least the stories that were
flattering to Germany. The show's menacing, mocking tone was meant
to chip away at British morale, as were its frequent
suggestions that the British should just give up and surrender.
(01:29):
During the war, Joyce broadcast from behind German lines, careful
to spit his venom only from a safe distance. However,
when the Nazi regime finally fell, Lord haw Haw had
nowhere left to hide. William Joyce was executed for high
treason against the British Crown, but his nationality was a
(01:52):
little more complicated than that suggests. He was actually an
American born in Brooklyn, New York in nineteen o six X.
His parents were both from Ireland, and his father had
become a naturalized US citizen ten years earlier. The family
moved back to Galway, Ireland when Joyce was three years old.
(02:13):
He grew up there and then moved to England when
he was just fourteen. There he lied about his age
and wound up being recruited as a courier for the
British Army during the Irish War for Independence. When it
was discovered that he was under age, Joyce was dismissed
from service, but decided to remain in London. He enrolled
(02:35):
in Birkebeck College, and it was during his studies that
he first began to flirt with the idea of fascism.
One day, Joyce attended a meeting for a Conservative Party
candidate and a fight broke out in the crowd. Joyce
was slashed with a razor along the right side of
his face, and the attack left him with a deep
(02:56):
scar that ran all the way from his ear lobe
to the corner of his health. He described as attackers
as Jewish communists, and later used the event as justification
for joining the fascist movement. In nineteen thirty two, Joyce
made his support official by joining the British Union of Fascists,
a political party founded that same year. Joyce quickly climbed
(03:20):
the ranks of the group and became its director of
propaganda in nineteen thirty four. He had a way with words,
but as time went on, his rhetoric became more and
more aggressive and overtly anti Semitic. In late August of
nineteen thirty nine, just before the official start of World
War Two, Joyce and his wife Margaret, traveled to Germany
(03:44):
on British passports. Joyce had obtained his passport one year
earlier by pretending to be a British subject when he
was in fact an American citizen. Once the war had
officially begun, Joyce renounced his phony British sizenship and became
a German citizen instead. He then traveled to Berlin, where
(04:05):
he joined the Reish Ministry of Propaganda and began hosting
his radio show Germany Calling. The head of the Ministry,
Joseph Goebbels, selected Joyce largely because he was a foreign fascist.
It was hoped that Joyce's clipped British accent would make
Nazi propaganda more compelling and palatable to listeners and Allied countries.
(04:30):
At first, Joyce's broadcasts were simply aimed at sewing division
among the British populace, and for that he stuck close
to the fascist playbook, pitting the classes against each other,
undermining trust in the government, and scapegoating minorities. British citizens
were discouraged from listening to the German broadcast, but many
(04:51):
did so anyway. In fact, the show drew an estimated
six million regular listeners in eighteen million occasional list nurse
throughout the United Kingdom. Some people thought Joyce's fiery rhetoric
was a lively counterpoint to the somber broadcasts of the BBC.
Others wanted to hear an uncensored report on German victories,
(05:14):
and were willing to put up with Lord Hahaw to
get it. However, as the war went on, Joyce's propaganda
turned increasingly caustic. By May of nineteen forty he was
threatening British citizens with invasion and urging them to switch
sides before it was too late. The broadcasts lost their
(05:34):
appeal from that point on, and most citizens began to
view them as a genuine threat to the country. Of course,
Lord Hahaw didn't care what the British public thought of him.
He continued broadcasting throughout the war, moving from one German
town to another to avoid Allied bombing raids. Then, at last,
(05:55):
on the evening of April thirty, nineteen forty five, Lord
ha Ha recorded his final broadcast. The show came in
the final days of the Battle of Berlin, just a
few hours before Adolph Hitler shot himself in his bunker.
As you might expect, the final broadcast wasn't Joyce's best work.
(06:17):
Given the circumstances. He was noticeably drunk, and his tirades
were far more rambling and incoherent than usual. I am
talking to about Germany that is a concept that many
of you may have failed to understand. Let me tell you, Ingemann,
(06:45):
the head and of strength, let me hello here. We
have a united people a month ablishes, not impared it.
They don't want to take what doesn't belonged to him all.
(07:08):
They wanted to live their own and blind. After signing
off with a farewell hile to the FurReal, Joyce fled
with his wife to a small village on the border
of Germany and Denmark. They hid there until May, when
Joyce was found and arrested by British intelligence officers who
(07:31):
get this recognized his voice from the radio. He was
handed over to British military police and then taken to
London to stand trial on three counts of high treason.
The question of jurisdiction loomed large in the case. Joyce
did have a British passport, but he only got it
(07:52):
by lying about his country of origin. Otherwise he had
only ever been an American or German citizen, and now
either of those can be charged with treason against Great Britain.
In the end, the jury decided that the passport was valid,
but that Joyce couldn't be charged with treason for anything
he did after it expired in nineteen forty. That decision
(08:15):
led to Joyce being acquitted on two of the three counts. However,
the last count was for broadcasts he had made between
nineteen thirty nine and early nineteen forty when his passport
was still valid. On that final count, Joyce was found
guilty and sentenced to death on September nine, nineteen forty five.
(08:38):
Joyce appealed the verdict but was dismissed by the House
of Lords. On January third, nineteen forty six, he was
taken to Wandsworth Prison and hanged at nine am that morning.
It was later reported that Joyce remained remorseless up to
his death, but made no complaint about his execution. A
(08:59):
formal notice of his death was posted outside the prison,
where about two hundred and fifty spectators had gathered. His
body was shown to the jury that convicted him upon
their request, and was then buried in an unmarked grave
on the prison grounds. Thirty years later, Joyce's daughter successfully
(09:20):
petitioned to have his body exhumed and returned to his
childhood home in Ireland. Even in death, there was still
a question as to where William Joyce belonged. He was
a natural born citizen of the United States, raised in Ireland,
educated in England, adopted by Germany. However, his identity was
(09:42):
defined more by his commitment to fascist ideology than by
any allegiance to a specific country or people. That blind
devotion is what made Joyce such an effective propagandist, but
it's ultimately what cost him his life as well. I
I'm Gabe Louisier, and hopefully you now know a little
(10:03):
more about history today than you did yesterday. If you
have a second and you're so inclined, consider following us
on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at t D I HC show.
You can also leave us a review on Apple Podcasts,
and you can write to us directly at this day
at I heart media dot com. Thanks as always the
(10:25):
channel or Mays for producing the show, and thanks to
you for listening. I'll see you back here again tomorrow
for another Day in History class. For more podcasts from
I heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
(10:47):
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
This Day in History Class News
Host
Gabe Luzier
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