Nordic League | |
|---|---|
| Abbreviation | NL |
| Leader | Archibald Maule Ramsay |
| Founded | 1935; 90 years ago (1935) |
| Dissolved | 1939; 86 years ago (1939) |
| Ideology | Nazism |
| Political position | Far-right |
| International affiliation | Nordische Gesellschaft |
| Slogan | "Perish Judah" |
TheNordic League (NL) was afar-right organisation in theUnited Kingdom from 1935 to 1939 that sought to serve as a co-ordinating body for the various extremist movements whilst also seeking to promoteNazism. The League was a private organisation that did not organise any public events.[1]
The Nordic League (NL) originated in 1935 when agents ofAlfred Rosenberg'sNordische Gesellschaft arrived in Britain to establish a UK version of their movement.[2] The main force behind this new group wasUnionist MPArchibald Maule Ramsay who chaired the group's 14-man leadership council. The group's constitution described it as an "association of race conscious Britons" and sought to co-ordinate all far-right andfascist movements whilst giving particular emphasis toanti-Semitism.[3]
The League sought to unite leading figures from across the far right, as demonstrated in April 1939 when a meeting addressed by Ramsay was chaired by a member of theBritish Union of Fascists who was supported by formerBritish Fascists presidentR. B. D. Blakeney andImperial Fascist League member E. H. Cole.[1] Other leading members includedJ. F. C. Fuller, the United Empire Fascist Party leader and Nazi agent Serocold Skeels,Henry Hamilton Beamish,Arnold Leese and P. J. Ridout.[3] The latter was credited with helping to popularise the NL's slogan "Perish Judah", which was frequently rendered "P.J." in public.[4]
BUF leaderOswald Mosley, fearful of being too closely associated with the League's extremist rhetoric, did not join but he permitted party members to do so which the likes of Fuller,Robert Gordon-Canning and Oliver C. Gilbert did readily.[2] As a result of these links the BUF was able to absorb the National Socialist Workers Party, a small group led by NL member Lieutenant-ColonelGraham Seton-Hutchison.[5]
The NL was closely linked to theWhite Knights of Britain, a secret society otherwise known as theHooded Men with ritual initiation based onFreemasonry and compared to theKu Klux Klan that was active from 1935 to 1937.[6] The White Knights and the NL shared the same building as their headquarters.[2] Another group, theMilitant Christian Patriots, that was active after theMunich Crisis urgingNeville Chamberlain not to become involved in a "Jewish war", was also closely connected to the NL and said byMI5 to be a front organisation.[3] By using this group and another front organisation, the Liberty Restoration League, the NL was able to ensure that high-ranking figures such asthe Duke of Wellington,the Duchess of Hamilton,Baron Brocket, andMichael O'Dwyer became involved in their movement.[5]
The NL came under increasing scrutiny afterKristallnacht, particularly for the violence of Ramsay,William Joyce andA. K. Chesterton in their anti-Semitic speeches.[7] Others such as Elwin Wright, who until 1937 was secretary of theAnglo-German Fellowship, called for the shooting of Jews, whilst Commander E. H. Cole condemned theHouse of Commons as being full of "bastardised Jewish swine".[7] However, such extremist language worked against the NL because its speakers were seen by the public at large as quite mad and so their pro-appeasement arguments were ignored.[8]
Following the outbreak of theSecond World War, two leading members, T. Victor-Rowe and Oliver Gilbert, wereinterned, and the NL largely went into abeyance, with members joining other, more public, anti-war groups.[8] The League had officially disbanded as soon as war was declared although it continued to meet secretly at Gilbert's house until his arrest in late September 1939.[9] Two of its members, Joyce and Margaret Bothamley, left Britain forNazi Germany after the outbreak of war.[10] Given the association of the NL with Nazism, BUF organiserAlexander Raven Thomson even suggested that Mosley publicly denounce the League as traitors in an attempt to present a more patriotic image, althoughDefence Regulation 18B came into force before this could be attempted.[11]