Sir Oswald Mosley, whose black-shirted British Union of Fascists was involved in bitter street fighting with Jews and left wingers during the 1930s, died at his home near Paris last night at the age of 84. An admirer of Hitler and would be “fuehrer” of Britain, Mosley was detained as a security risk during World War II and afterwards lived in France.
Mosley founded his fascist movement in 1932 after 12 years as a Member of Parliament, first as a Conservative and later as a Laborite. His affinity for the Nazis who came to power in Germany a year later marked him as a menace to British democracy and a danger to British Jewry. After the war Mosley claimed he was not anti-Semitic and had fought Jews in self-defense because they wanted Britain to go to war with Germany.
During the 1950s and 1960s, Mosley attempted to revive his Fascist Union from exile but he was displaced by a new wave of younger generation racist groups racist groups. Mosley was related by marriage to Unity Mitford who idolized Hitler and shot herself when Britain declared war on Germany in 1939.
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