Die hier gezeigten Abzeichen sind zu edukativen Zwecken dargestellt, aus diesem Grund sind sie nicht abgedeckt. Weiterhin möchte ich auf den folgenden Discliamer aufmerksam machen: Disclaimer: Die hier gezeigten Abbildungen aus der Zeit des "Dritten Reiches", u.a. mit dem damals obligatorischen "Hakenkreuz", dienen der Berichterstattung über Vorgänge des Zeitgeschehens, der staatsbürgerlichen Aufklärung sowie Forschung und Lehre (§ 86a, 86 StGB)
The BUF Background:
Peace did not arrive after the end of the Second World War in Europe as we know peace today. The armies may have stopped fighting, but there were still summary executions, rape, famine and wholesale lootings.
Members of the British Union of Fascists, who became known as the British Union after WW2, were released from prison at the end of the war. They had been held without trial or charges under an act of Parliament called "Section 18b". Their only crimes seem to have been the forming up of a peace movement prior to and during the outbreak of WW2 during the 1939-40 period.
The BUF refered to the war between Germany and Great Britain as a "Brothers War" and demanded peace between the two countries. On the very day that Churchill took power, 10th May 1940, he ordered the arrest of the BUF under Section 18b. Some like Mosley (the BUF leader) were released during the war on health reasons, some had been released to serve in the armed forces once the threat of a German invasion was removed.
The BUF were renamed the UM (Union Movement) after the war. It was decided that the continued use of the word "Fascist" would have a negative effect after the end of WW2. Even though the word was not German or had anything to do with Germany, it was an Italian word for an Italian based movement, but that is almost unknown today.
Although the members of the BUF/UM were themselves still trying to pick up the pieces of their own lives after the war, many were denied jobs and housing because of their pre-war political connections. They still found time to consider helping the people of Germany in the post-war period during 1945-1949.
The front cover of a British Union membership book.
Compassion for Germany 1945-1949:
At about the same time that Charles De Gaulle recognised the Germans should be seen as fellow Europeans, Mosley said "Now we must work for a unified Europe". After the outbreak of peace in 1945, more Germans died than during the war, prison camps overflowing due to Denazification and even the former concentration camps in the east were being filled with displaced Germans. The first two years after the war saw the railways still running at only 10% production and infant mortality rate was at 80%.
Lady Mosley had been sending parcels for some time to Germany in an attempt to heal the artificial animosities between Germany and Great Britain. After a letter in the weekly newspaper "UNION", Lady Mosley decided to start a campaign for sending parcels to Germany by the newspapers readers. On the 4th December 1948 Lady Mosley launched "The Bond of Brotherhood". Food and clothes were collected and sent to Germany from the readership.
There was still food rationing in Great Britain and all parcels had to be passed by the local Food Office before posting. In February 1949 new regulations issued by the Ministry of Food, making it permissible to send more rationed goods in a food parcel. In May 1949 there was no longer a need to obtain a stamp of approval from the Food Office. A year later and the parcel campaign was wound down. An action of help that is almost unknown by the modern generation today.
A post-war UM badge discovered at a militaria stall in West London several years ago, cost £10.
Letters from back issues of "UNION" during 1948-1949:
"Thank you very much for your kind gifts of bundles of clothes for Germany. I am certain they will be greatly appreciated. Again many thanks, Yours sincerely, Diana Mosley."
"Dear Sir, I have a friend in Germany (Berlin) whose five year old son has never seen or tasted an orange, banana, or chocolate, and I would like to send him a small parcel, so now I would like to know if this would be legal. I would not like this parcel to be confiscated. Yours faithfully, S.C. Buckmaster."
The editor replied:
"You may send a food parcel to Germany provided it does not exceed 7 lbs gross weight and only contains rationed goods not more than 2 lbs of one item. The parcel must be passed by local Food Office before posting."
"Dear Sir, I sent a food parcel to Germany under this Bond of Brotherhood, and I have had a most wonderful letter in return. I put a note in the parcel apologising for the bombs, they live in Kassel and I helped prang that town on two occasions, (blast it) and I think it a very wonderful thing that there should be nothing but a very sincere and ernest desire for friendship. One useful lesson from this war seems to be that love is stronger than hate, and its something you can´t see, smell or touch, bombs and bullets won´t break it, and so the Communists fear it. Yours etc., Airman."
