John Amery

John Amery    (Activist)
Born	14 March 1912 Chelsea, London
Died	19 December 1945 (Age 33) Wandsworth Prison, London, England
Cause of death	execution
Criminal charge	Treason
Parents	• Leopold Stennett Amery • Florence Greenwood
Siblings	Julian Amery
Spouse	Una Wing
Brother of politician Julian Amery. A Nazi-sympathiser who was executed for high treason by the UK government.

John Amery, brother of Julian Amery, was a Nazi-sympathiser who was executed by the UK government. He was the originator of the British Free Corps, a volunteer Waffen-SS unit composed of former British and Dominion prisoners-of-war.

Amery conducted recruitment efforts and made broadcasts for Germany. He later gave direct support to Benito Mussolini. He was sentenced to death by British authoritites seven months after the war in Europe ended.

Early life

Born in Chelsea, London, John Amery was the elder of two children of British politician Leo Amery (1873–1955), a member of parliament and later Conservative government minister, whose mother was a Hungarian Jew who had converted to Protestantism. His younger brother, Julian (1919–1996), also became an MP and sat in a Conservative government.

He left Britain permanently to live in France after being declared bankrupt in 1936. In Paris, he met the French fascist leader Jacques Doriot, with whom he travelled to Austria, Italy, and Germany to witness the effects of fascism in those countries.

Amery told his family he had joined Francisco Franco's Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War in 1936 and was awarded a medal of honour while serving as an intelligence officer with Italian volunteer forces (Corpo Truppe Volontarie). He actually worked for Franco as a liaison with French Cagoulard groups and gun-runner. After the Spanish war, Amery settled in France.

World War 2

In 1941 Amery was recruited by the Nazis and began making pro Adolf Hitler broadcasts in Berlin.

On 19th November, 1942, he stated: "Listeners will wonder what an Englishman is doing on the German radio tonight. You can imagine that before taking this step I hoped that someone better qualified than me would come forward. I dared to believe that some ray of common sense, some appreciation of our priceless civilization would guide the counsels of Mr Churchill's Government. Unfortunately this has not been the case! For two years living in a neutral country I have been able to see through the haze of propaganda to reach something which my conscience tells me is the truth. That is why I come forward tonight without any political label, without any bias, but just simply as an Englishman to say to you: a crime is being committed against civilization. Not only the priceless heritage of our fathers, of our seamen, of our Empire builders is being thrown away in a war that serves no British interests - but our alliance leader Stalin dreams of nothing but the destruction of that heritage of our fathers? Morally this is a stain on our honour, practically it can only lead sooner or later to disaster and Communism in Great Britain, to a disintegration of all the values we cherish most."

British Free Corps

The idea of a British force to fight the communists languished until Amery encountered Jacques Doriot during a visit to France in January 1943. Doriot was part of the LVF (Légion des Volontaires Français), a French volunteer force fighting alongside the Germans on the eastern front.

Amery rekindled his idea of a British unit and aimed to recruit 50 to 100 men for propaganda purposes and to establish a core of men with which to attract additional members from British prisoners of war. He also suggested that such a unit could provide more recruits for the other military units made up of foreign nationals.

Amery's first recruiting drive for what was initially to be called the British Legion of St George took him to the Saint-Denis POW camp outside Paris. Amery addressed between 40 and 50 inmates from British Commonwealth countries and handed out recruiting material. This first effort at recruitment was a complete failure, but he persisted.

Amery's drive for recruits found two men, of whom only one, Kenneth Berry, joined what was later called the BFC. Amery's link to the unit ended in October 1943, when the Waffen SS decided his services were no longer needed, and it was officially renamed the British Free Corps.

Arrest and death

Amery continued to broadcast and write propaganda in Berlin until late 1944 when he travelled to Northern Italy to lend support to Italian dictator Benito Mussolini's Salò Republic. On 25 April 1945, Amery was captured along with his French mistress Michelle Thomas by Italian partisans from the Garibaldi Brigade near Como. Amery and Thomas were initially to be executed, but both of them were eventually sent to Milan, where they were handed over to Allied authorities. Amery was wearing the uniform of the "Muti Legion", a fascist paramilitary organisation. The British army officer who took him into custody was Captain Alan Whicker, later known as a broadcaster.

He was charged with high treason in the autumn of 1945 and sentenced to death by hanging on November 28, 1945. The sentence was carried out on 19 December at Wandsworth Prison by the executioner Albert Pierrepoint. Amery is believed to be the only defendant in British judicial history to plead guilty to the charge of high treason.

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References

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