Data On Former King, Nazis Sought
Government documents that may reveal whether the Duke of Windsor had Nazi sympathies are being kept secret beyond the normal 50-year period. An opposition lawmaker wants to know why.
On Thursday, Andrew Mackinlay of the Labor Party tabled a series of questions, to be answered by Prime Minister John Major next week, about why papers about the former king are still not available.
“You cannot suggest that this is a matter of history because documents are being held back which indicate, it is alleged, that the Duke of Windsor had more than a serious flirtation with our enemies,” Mackinlay said.
Suspicions about the duke’s war-time activities have long been the subject of speculation.
The duke ascended to the throne as Edward VIII in 1936, but abdicated later that year in order to marry Wallis Simpson, an American divorcee. He died in 1972, and the duchess died in 1986.
British television showed the first half of a documentary, “The Traitor King,” on Thursday. The documentary raises questions about whether the duke hoped to be restored to the throne in a Nazi-conquered Britain.
After his abdication, the duke and duchess accepted Adolf Hitler’s invitation to visit Germany, ostensibly to study labor conditions.
The duke settled on the French Riviera in 1938, where his friends included Charles Bedeaux, a Franco-American businessman with Nazi sympathies.
According to a preview of the documentary, Bedeaux was the likely source of a report filed by the German ambassador in The Netherlands in 1940. His cable to Berlin quoted the duke as saying allied commanders had decided to resist any German thrust into Belgium by falling behind the French-Belgian border.
After the war broke out, the duke was given a job as liaison officer with the British and French High commands. But in 1940 he was sent to the Caribbean as governor and commander in chief of the Bahamas.
The late John Costello covered the same ground in his 1988 book, “Mask of Treachery,” which included a long chapter on the duke’s flirtation with Nazis.