John Amery

[J. Duncan]

Having read the book by David Faber titled "Speaking for England" about the Amery family, one can only conclude that son John was a piece of shit from birth. He troubles his wet nurses and housemaids. He gets sent to a good boarding school and gets kicked out. He marries a prostitute. He splits England and does gun running for Franco's Fascists. He falls in love with Nazism and broadcasts against his home country from Berlin. All the while, he runs up bills, begs his rich Dad to bail him out financially, declares bankruptcy several times, drinks and drugs. The Germans can't stand him because this arrogant little swine demands more and more money and favors for his "services" such as organizing a British Freikorps. He winds up in Paris with another whore, drunk, depressed and with STD's. He is hanged by the British for treason. I kept thinking that Amery was not unlike a few spoiled brats today, only that he is a treasonous spoiled brat who fought for a bad cause that lost.

It's an interesting case study.

For another book on Amery, see also Adrien Weale's "Patriot Traitors".

[Ivan Ž.]

It is seldom-known that Amery also paid a visit to occupied Belgrade, in November 1943. He stayed there with his French wife for several days, and held a political conference (in French language) on 20 November, entitled "Today's Serbia in the eyes of an English nationalist". According to the press article, this was his second visit to the city (the first and very brief one was in 1936). Amery said that he liked and valued Serbs as a capable and hard-working nation, and that he regretted so many innocent people dying in vain, misled by the false news campaign transmitted via Radio London (ref. to the London-supported resistance and German reprisals). His wife was delighted with Belgrade, getting an impression that Serbian women had a lot in common with French. She couldn't believe meeting so many beautiful women in such a short time.

Source: Novo vreme, Belgrade, 19.11.1943, p. 3 (photo: M. C. = Marko Ciganović)

Cheers,
Ivan

[K.Kocjancic]

It is seldom-known that Amery also paid a visit to occupied Belgrade, in November 1943. He stayed there with his French wife for several days, and held a political conference (in French language) on 20 November, entitled "Today's Serbia in the eyes of an English nationalist". According to the press article, this was his second visit to the city (the first and very brief one was in 1936). Amery said that he liked and valued Serbs as a capable and hard-working nation, and that he regretted so many innocent people dying in vain, misled by the false news campaign transmitted via Radio London (ref. to the London-supported resistance and German reprisals). His wife was delighted with Belgrade, getting an impression that Serbian women had a lot in common with French. She couldn't believe meeting so many beautiful women in such a short time.


Novo vreme 19-11-1943 p3.jpg
Source: Novo vreme, Belgrade, 19.11.1943, p. 3 (photo: M. C. = Marko Ciganović)

Cheers,
Ivan

Interesting find! Thanks for sharing it.

KK

[steve248]

The British security service MI 5 has seven "name files" for John Amery available at UK National Archives, KV 2/78 to KV 2/84. If you register -nothing special required - you can download all the files for free.