When Nazis Marched Through London

Esther at IIE points us to a fascinating story in the London Times.

This newly-released footage is really quite terrifying.

It was unearthed by a Discovery Channel programme to be aired next week called Wartime London, presented by London cabby Harry Harris.

It shows the funeral, in 1936, of the German Ambassador to Britain, Leopold von Hoesch in 1936.

After a fatal stroke a state funeral was held for him, a salute of nineteen guns was fired in Hyde Park, and Grenadier Guards marched down the Mall. Shoulder to shoulder with Nazi soldiers.

They carried a coffin draped in a swastika, while crowds lined the road and balconies, a terrifyingly large number of them giving the Nazi salute.

Who are these people? They can’t, as Harris points out, all be embassy staff. Whether they were Germans living in London or British Nazi sympathisers is unknown. Most probably a mix of both...