Duke of Windsor sought close Nazi ties, von Ribbentrop’s Nuremberg letter reveals

THE Duke of Windsor sought “the closest co-operation” with Hitler’s Germany in 1936, a letter written on behalf of a high-ranking Nazi reveals.

It asks former King Edward VIII to give evidence in his favour at the Nuremberg trials.

The document was written by the legal team of Joachim von Ribbentrop, Adolf Hitler’s minister of foreign affairs, in January 1946. He called on the Duke of Windsor to appear on his behalf.

Von Ribbentrop recalled a meeting in 1936 in which the pair agreed to work towards the “closest possible relationship” between England and Germany.

The Nazi sought to use the Duke’s evidence to disprove counts of crimes against peace and planning a war of aggression, which he had been charged with. Von Ribbentrop was found guilty and was the first Nazi defendant executed by hanging. The five-page letter is up for auction on Wednesday.

It reads: “When presenting his credentials in 1936, von Ribbentrop expressed to the then King Edward VIII the desire of the Reich Chancellor (Hitler) for the closest co-operation between Germany and England. In the course of this audience, King Edward VIII declared that he, too, deemed such a co-operation necessary.”

The letter was kept by Dr Hans Werner, responsible for printing the record of the Trial of Major War Criminals in 42 volumes. It is tipped to sell for £2,600 at International Autograph Auctions of Malaga, Spain.

Richard Davie, of the auctioneers, said: “Many historians have suggested that Hitler was prepared to reinstate the Duke of Windsor as king in the hope of establishing a fascist puppet government in Great Britain after Operation Sealion, the secret Nazi plan for the invasion of the UK.

“It is widely believed that the Duke and Duchess sympathised with fascism before and during the Second World War and were moved to the Bahamas to minimise their opportunities to act on their feelings. Reading the document, you get a sense of von Ribbentrop’s desperation. He was desperately trying to do something to get out of his situation.”

Edward VIII was king for less than a year before his abdication in December 1936. In 1937, two years before the war, he and his wife, Wallis Simpson, toured Nazi Germany. The Duke of Windsor declared the Nazi economic model a “miracle” and was photographed giving Nazi salutes.