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The John Batchelor Show

S8 Ep274: HALIFAX, HITLER, AND THE SOVIET FEAR Colleague Charles Spicer. By late 1937, the Anglo-German Fellowship was under surveillance by both MI5 and the NKVD, as Stalin feared the organization might successfully broker an alliance between Britain and Germany a

The John Batchelor Show

John Batchelor

Arts, Society & Culture, Books, News

4.52.8K Ratings

🗓️ 1 January 2026

⏱️ 10 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

HALIFAX, HITLER, AND THE SOVIET FEAR Colleague Charles Spicer. By late 1937, the Anglo-German Fellowship was under surveillance by both MI5 and the NKVD, as Stalin feared the organization might successfully broker an alliance between Britain and Germany against the Soviet Union. In November, Foreign Minister Lord Halifax visited the Berghof, where the cultural disconnect was so profound that he initially mistook Hitler for a footman. Although Halifax was appalled by Hitler's brutality—specifically his suggestion to shoot Gandhi to solve problems in India—he was momentarily fooled into believing Hitler did not want war. This meeting highlighted the dangerous gap between the civilized assumptions of British diplomacy and the predatory reality of the Nazi regime. NUMBER 8
1945-46 NUREMBERG

Transcript

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0:00.0

I'm John Batchel with Charles Spicer.

0:07.0

His book is Coffee with Hitler, the untold story of the amateur spies who tried to civilize the Nazis.

0:13.8

Lloyd George met Hitler in September of 36.

0:16.8

It is now the summer of 37 into the fall of 37.

0:27.6

There is no longer an illusion in London that the Nazi regime is rising to power, both to remilitarize and to brutalize its citizens everywhere, but especially Jewish citizens.

0:34.6

At the same time, the D.E. Deg in Berlin and the Anglo-German

0:40.6

fellowship in London are being penetrated by spies. And I hardly have time to go very far in these

0:48.2

avenues that Charles introduces us to. But the NKVD is present. MI5 is always watching the fellowship. Also, I've not, I must note at this

0:58.9

point that one of the hires of a German speaker, a young man from Cambridge, who was a fluent

1:05.0

German speaker, who has been identified in Cambridge as very left, is named Philby, Kim Filby. Charles, when I read this

1:13.4

part of your book, I said, this is too much. I've had to learn the Cambridge Five entirely from the

1:19.5

Soviet point of view. Now I have to learn it from the German point of view. Why was Kim Filby at the

1:25.9

Anglo-German Fellowship? He was hired by them. He was paid by them.

1:30.3

Yes, he was asked by, invited to come in to set up the publicity department, to do a bit of what we would now call PR.

1:40.8

And just like now when, you know, companies run by older businessmen need to do stuff with

1:46.6

social media, they will go to university graduates from a top university to get the latest

1:51.2

thinking. That's what they appear to have done by getting Kim Filby to come and join. He's introduced

1:58.1

by a family friend who's a member of the Sir Roger Chance,

2:03.1

who's a family friend, who's a member of the fellowship. And he joins both as a member and a member

2:08.9

of the staff. And he's reporting to his cutout, or he's reporting to the Soviets, because Stalin

2:15.3

is watching this. And a sidebar from later in the story,

2:18.7

but let's introduce us. Stalin pays a great deal of attention to the fellowship in London

...

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