Richard Crossman

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Richard Howard Stafford Crossman , also Dick Crossman or RHS Crossman , (born December 15, 1907 in Cropredy , Oxfordshire , † April 5, 1974 in Banbury ) was a British author , specialist in psychological warfare and politician . As a prominent socialist politician, he became one of the leading Zionists and later anti-communists of his party.

Life

Crossman grew up in Buckhurst Hill , Essex and went to school at Winchester College . He later studied at New College (Oxford) until he became a teacher in the Workers Educational Association . In the early 1930s he lived in Berlin , where in July 1932 he met Erika Susanna Glück, b. Landsberg (1906–1979) married, from whom he was divorced in 1934. Through her he gained access to Willi Münzenberg and Albert Norden . On his return to England he became a fellow at New College, a councilor on Oxford City Council and, from 1935, also chairman of the local Labor Party .

With the beginning of the Second World War Crossman joined the Political Warfare Executive under Robert Bruce Lockhart and headed the German section. With the formation of the SHAEF , he became Chief of Operations in its Psychological Warfare Division . As such, he managed the entire public relations work as well as the propaganda against the Axis powers via radio, leaflets, film and publications. Crossman was directly subordinate to the deputy of the boss Robert A. McClure . In the spring of 1945 he was one of the first Allied officers to enter the Dachau concentration camp . With the Australian war correspondent Colin Wills he wrote the script for the British documentary German Concentration Camps Factual Survey (producer: Sidney Bernstein , technical advice from Alfred Hitchcock ). For his achievements in the war, he was named Officer of the Order of the British Empire .

In 1945 he became a member of the British House of Commons for the constituency of Coventry East. He held this position until his death in 1974.

1945-46 he was a member of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry under Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin to investigate the problems of European Jews and Palestinians. Its report recommended in April 1946 that 100,000 displaced persons be allowed to immigrate . H. Jews from concentration camps to Palestine . The recommendation was rejected by the UK government. Crossman, who led the socialist opposition against it, drew the opposition to Bevins and could not achieve a ministerial rank in the government 1945-51.

In 1947, Crossman, together with Michael Foot and Ian Mikardo, wrote the pamphlet "Keep left", in which the US strategy in the Cold War is criticized. Later he represented the so-called Bevanism propagated by Nye Bevan in the party , which provided for extensive nationalization . From 1952 to 1967 Crossman was a member of the National Executive Committee (party board) of his party and 1960–61 its chairman. He maintained extensive connections in the GDR until 1973 and is now considered the unofficial liaison between the British government and the GDR party and government agencies in the early 1960s.

In 1957, he joined an libel suit brought by Aneurin Bevan and Morgan Phillips against The Spectator magazine , which portrayed the men as heavily drunk at a socialist convention in Italy. Since all three swore that this was untrue, the magazine was sentenced to pay damages. However, Crossman's posthumously published diaries confirmed the press allegations.

Crossman, who was previously party spokesman for education, was appointed Minister of Housing and Local Government by Harold Wilson after the 1964 election . In 1966 he became Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons . As State Secretary for Health and Social Affairs 1968-70 he worked on the implementation of an income-related component in the general pension system, which was no longer implemented by Labor after the 1970 election.

After the election defeat, Crossman retired from the party executive committee and became editor ( New Statesman ) and author. He died of liver cancer .

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Biographies

Web links

References

  1. ↑ Richard Mayne: In Victory, Magnanimity, in Peace, Goodwill , p. 6. ISBN 0714654337 .
  2. ↑ Daniel Lerner : Sykewar . Chart IV, p. 59, George W. Stewart Pub., New York, 1947
  3. ^ Merrilyn Thomas: Communing with the enemy: covert operations, Christianity and Cold War politics in Britain and the GDR. Frankfurt etc .: Peter Lang 2005 ISBN 978-3-03910-192-4 , p. 184
personal data
SURNAME Crossman, Richard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Crossman, Richard Howard Stafford (full name); Crossman, Dick; Crossman, RHS
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British author and politician, Member of the House of Commons
DATE OF BIRTH December 15, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Cropredy , Oxfordshire
DATE OF DEATH April 5th 1974
Place of death Banbury