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 Morris Beckman speaking at an anti-fascist meeting in Bethnal Green in October 1947 |
‘Never again’: How the 43 Group stood up to Mosley
Morris Beckman tells how the hate being preached on street corners in the late 1940s prompted him and other Jewish war veterans to go into battle once more
IN his book Promise and Fulfilment Arthur Koestler wrote: “In 1945 the psyche of the Jew changed.
No longer would they be the world’s scapegoats and victims. No longer would they accept the humiliations nor turn the other cheek. From now on they would be protagonists and fight their own corner.”
As the defeat of Nazi Germany in the Second World War spilled out the appalling news of the Holocaust, the slogan “Never again” overwhelmed Jewish communities worldwide. The Jewish way of defence and caution was kicked into the long grass and payback, assault and retaliation activated the new Jew everywhere.
In northern Italy, the 5,500 soldiers of the Jewish Brigade distinguished themselves in battle against seasoned Nazi paratroopers. Ignoring orders they drove their vehicles deep into dangerous post-war Europe and rescued thousands of Jewish mental and physical wrecks, rehabilitated them and illegally helped to get them into the sanctuary of Jewish Palestine.
Their special commando units sought, caught and executed 1,500 high-ranking Nazis for genocidal murder and later provided 35 generals for the State of Israel’s defence forces.
Meanwhile, back in England, Oswald Mosley, the pre-war British fascist leader imprisoned for treachery and released suspiciously early, was making great progress with the resurrection of his pre-war British Union of Fascists (BUF).
By summer 1946 in Greater London alone he had eight small fascist parties taking root. They were all building up a healthy membership comprising pre-war BUF officers, competent orators, rank-and-file fighters and teenage thugs.
There were fascist bookshops and discussion groups. Eight papers and magazines were being sold on street corners and at the increasing number of outdoor meetings. Their literature was strewn on buses and underground trains. Mosley’s headquarters was at his large mansion in Ramsbury, Wiltshire. There his inmates and he conducted the new fascists.
They included Alf Lockhart, Raven Thomson, Jeffrey Hamm, Victor Burgess and others, and in 1946 they were buoyant. A British public wearied by war and shortages was indifferent. The police protected their speakers.
Thus Mosley kept up his provocative attacks on Jews and his speakers concentrated on the demonisation of Jewry. The Holocaust? Fascist speakers knew the answer. It never happened. Simple.
Yet, for the fascists, nemesis was just around the corner. It was The 43 Group, the 1,500 Jewish war veterans who, in the course of defending a vulnerable community, attacked and totally destroyed Mosley’s post-war fascists and in 1948 had him exiling himself into Ireland, then France.
In April 1946 the first waves of demobilised Jewish servicemen and women were coming home to their Maccabi sports club in Compayne Gardens, West Hampstead.
They were uncertain about the low-key Anglo-Jewish war in Palestine, but it was the return of Oswald Mosley to London’s streets that infuriated them.
A deputation of six saw cross-party MPs and requested the banning of the Mosleyites. The MPs did ask the right questions but it was no go with Chuter Ede, the Labour Home Secretary.
They next tried to galvanise the Jewish Defence Committee into action. It was in vain. Then 38 ex-servicemen and five women held a meeting in Maccabi House. It was a soberly quiet meeting. The calibre of those present was high with a submariner VC, an MM hero, a Naval DSC and 2 DFCs. The 43 of us voted unanimously to launch an assault on the post-war fascists.
Within one month, The 43 Group, as we were named, had enrolled more than 250 members. They were from all walks of life and different places, but the majority were London’s East Enders.
They were seasoned veterans who had been mentally and physically toughened. They formed commando teams which never let up attacking and harassing every fascist activity.
By November 1946, The 43 Group topped 1,000 members. Led by an exceptional chairman, they had raised a severely disciplined force which had so ferociously, bloodily and successfully unhinged Mosleyites that arguably the most intelligent top fascist, Raven Thomson, warned Mosley that if they did not finish off The 43 Group, it would do that to the fascists.
Well, that is what happened. Over the years many anti-racist organisations in Britain and abroad have asked how The 43 Group so substantially demolished a by no means weak fascist movement.
First, the right ingredients honed our mood and morale into the right peak. Yes, we hated them. So much so that when we attacked them we ran at them with intent to damage and frighten them. We did both. This resulted in the first fascists quitting Mosley in the spring of 1947. This haemorrhage continued, increased and vitally weakened Mosley’s plans. The second ingredient was the severe discipline emanating from the top. Those who pledged to do things always did them. Third, the comradeship between members was tremendous.
But in those dangerous hard years of fighting the “43ers” knew that if they were in trouble, and this happened to many, others would rush to help them.
We set out to protect a community from the worst of predatory racists and succeeded and, more importantly, The 43 Group, by example, helped others do the same.
n Morris Beckman’s
book The 43 Group is published by Centerprise
Publications £9.50
Order online at www.thecnj.co.uk
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