Trudy Gold
Edward VIII: A Wasted Life?
Summary
Edward VIII was born during the reign of his great grandmother Victoria to unbelievable privilege. As Prince of Wales, his charisma made him very popular throughout the British Empire, yet his playboy image caused his family to despair. He abdicated the throne to marry a twice divorced American, and then visited Nazi Germany. We will ask the questions: was he a traitor to Britain? What was his attitude towards the Jewish people?
Trudy Gold
Trudy Gold was the CEO of the London Jewish Cultural Centre and a founding member of the British delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). Throughout her career she taught modern Jewish history at schools, universities, and to adult groups and ran seminars on Holocaust education in the UK, Eastern Europe, and China. She also led Jewish educational tours all over the world. Trudy was the educational director of the student resources “Understanding the Holocaust” and “Holocaust Explained” and the author of The Timechart History of Jewish Civilization.
Arlene, it’s a very good point. How much of it, he was obsessed, there’s no question about that. He was an incredibly weak man. Evidently he was also sexually rather strange. But I’m going to leave all that to Anne.
Shelly, it depends entirely who you read on it. Certainly he is head of the Church of England. There’s a big fuss at the moment because Charles wants to be head of all faiths. But there’s a problem because certainly up until Charles, Elizabeth was head of the Church of England, and the church up until the last 20 years frowned desperately on divorce. A twice divorced American commoner. Think about it. It’s only in the recent decades that the royalty are marrying non-royals. Look, Victoria might have had an arranged marriage, but it was a love match, but that was with a prince. Edward VII married a princess, a Danish princess. They were dynastic marriages. George V made a dynastic marriage with his brother’s fiancee. His brother died, his elder brother died, so Mary was passed on to George. Dynastic marriage. George VI seems to have made a love marriage, but with a Scottish aristocratic who was impeccable. His brother, who becomes king, he’s having affairs with all these married women, moving with the bright young things. It’s a complicated story.
Look, he believed all Jews were communists. Think protocols of the Elders of Zion. “Jews are too arriviste,” in inverted commas. Look, many of the upper classes had antisemitic tendencies. There was a club in London called the Friday Club. The Duke of Wellington was a member. They were all violently antisemitic. Look, Jews are capitalist. Jews are communist. If you really want me to analyse that, it’s a very huge question you’ve just asked. Speaking personally, and this is very much my view, I think 2,000 years of making a people into the pariah, into the pariahs, it goes very, very, very deep. And also don’t forget, Edward was not very bright.