His Father Served Churchill. He Served Hitler: The Dark Story of John Amery

His father helped make Winston Churchill prime minister. His son went to Berlin and spoke on the radio for Hitler's Germany. On May 7, 1940, Leo Amery stood in the House of Commons and told his own party's prime minister, "In the name of God, go!" Within three days, Churchill was in power, and Amery served in his government for the rest of the war as Secretary of State for India and Burma. His elder son, John, took the other road. A failed businessman living in France when the Germans arrived, he went to Berlin in 1942, broadcast to Britain for the Nazi regime, and tried to recruit British men held in German camps to fight for Germany. His younger brother, Julian, was in British uniform. This documentary follows father and son side by side, year by year, from the Norway Debate to Wandsworth Prison in December 1945, and ends with the words Leo Amery wrote about his son. CHAPTERS 0:00 "In the name of God, go!" 1:10 Leo Amery: the father 2:40 The difficult son 4:30 Berlin, 1942 6:05 The camp at Saint-Denis 7:55 Capture near Lake Como 9:05 The Old Bailey 10:50 Wandsworth, December 1945 12:10 The father's last word SOURCES AND FURTHER READING Hansard, House of Commons debate, May 7, 1940 (the Norway Debate) Time magazine, "Unlike Son", November 30, 1942 Time magazine, "The End of Amery", December 31, 1945 The Empire at Bay: The Leo Amery Diaries, 1929 to 1945, edited by John Barnes and David Nicholson Adrian Weale, Renegades: Hitler's Englishmen Richard Grayson, History Today, on Leo Amery and his son John If someone in your family was a prisoner of war in Germany, tell us in the comments. Did anyone ever try to recruit them? This documentary is made for historical and educational purposes. It describes Nazi propaganda and collaboration in order to explain them, not to endorse them. Archival photographs are used for historical illustration. Under False Names tells the single-life stories of WW2's traitors, spies and double agents. Subscribe for a new full documentary every week. #WW2 #History #JohnAmery