Publication today of Sir Nevile Henderson’s book, “Failure of a Mission: Berlin, 1937-1939,” recounting the former British Ambassador’s efforts to make peace with Germany, sheds new light on the period leading up to the war. It contains facts which serve as refutation of Nazi allegations that the Allies declared war on the Reich to avenge the Jews.
Sir Nevile indicates that Britain would have been willing to accept friendship with Germany even with the anti-Semitic legislation in force. He states: “…nor would the world have failed to acclaim Hitler as a great German if he had known when and where to stop; even, for instance, after Munich and the Nuremberg decrees for the Jews.”
The former Ambassador also relates that, with the full consent of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, he committed a “calculated indiscretion” a month after his arrival in Berlin by making a speech before the German-English Society, which, he says, “earned for me in some British journals the application of ‘our Nazi British Ambassador at Berlin.'”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
