Voting Station

Lord Haw Haw (William Joyce)

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Radio Personality

The Resume

    (April 24, 1906-January 3, 1946)
    Moved to England (1921)
    Became propaganda director for the British Union of Fascists (1932)
    Fled to Germany (1939) and became a German citizen (1940)
    Broadcast Nazi propaganda to Britain (1940-45)
    Nicknamed 'Lord Haw-Haw'
    The last person executed by the British for treason
    Known as the 'British Voice Of Germany'

Why he might be annoying:

    He was an American, raised in Ireland and England, who became a broadcaster for Nazi Germany.
    He had a strange love-hate relation with Britain, pretending to be a native-born Englishman while broadcasting for the country's enemies.
    He fled to Germany when the United Kingdom declared war on Germany.
    He broadcast anit-British/anti-democratic propaganda to England during WW II.
    Due to a broken nose from a fight in his youth he had a nasal sounding voice.
    He was anti-semitic.
    He was sacked from the British Union of Fascists because his frequent brawling was 'attracting the wrong sort of people.'
    He was convinced 'Jewish Communists' were responsible for the attack.
    In addition to broadcasting propaganda, he tried to get British POWs to enlist in the British Free Corps and fight with Germany on the Russian front.
    Adolph Hitler awarded Joyce the War Merit Cross for his broadcasts.
    When the war started going badly for Germany, he began drinking heavily, and occasionally went on the air while drunk.
    Before his execution, he said, 'In death as in life, I defy the Jews who caused this last war.'

Why he might not be annoying:

    Many British subjects listened to his broadcasts on a regular basis.
    His broadcasts became popular in Britain because he read messages from POWs.
    Instead of taking them seriously, at times they provided comic relief.
    He was captured by American forces. He stood trial as a British subject and was executed for treason.
    Mel Blanc voiced a parody of him in the Loony Tunes cartoons called 'Lord Hee-Haw'
    Although he regularly attacked 'Churchill's gang of scabs,' he refused to criticize the royal family.
    His lawyers argued that since Joyce was never a British citizen, he could not legally have committed treason against the UK.
    The British Attorney General successfully argued the technicality that when Joyce lied about his citizenship to obtain a British passport, he had placed himself under the protection of the Crown and therefore owed allegiance to the British government.
    Credit: Lovelythesp
    Additional Info: C. Fishel

Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 12 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 15 Votes: 93.33% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 106 Votes: 51.89% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 9 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 35 Votes: 42.86% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 28 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 22 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 11 Votes: 45.45% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 31 Votes: 45.16% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 128 Votes: 64.06% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 24 Votes: 70.83% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 48 Votes: 83.33% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 83 Votes: 69.88% Annoying
    In 2009, Out of 52 Votes: 65.38% Annoying
    In 2008, Out of 66 Votes: 77.27% Annoying
    In 2007, Out of 116 Votes: 76.72% Annoying
    In 2006, Out of 299 Votes: 75.25% Annoying
    In 2005, Out of 438 Votes: 69.63% Annoying
    In 2004, Out of 621 Votes: 70.21% Annoying
    In 2003, Out of 347 Votes: 70.03% Annoying