Pearl Joyce Vardon (5 April 1915 in

Jersey Jersey ( ; ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey, is an autonomous and self-governing island territory of the British Islands. Although as a British Crown Dependency it is not a sovereign state, it has its own distinguishing civil and gov ...

Channel Islands The Channel Islands are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They are divided into two Crown Dependencies: the Jersey, Bailiwick of Jersey, which is the largest of the islands; and the Bailiwick of Guernsey, ...

– November 2011) was a British broadcaster of

Nazi propaganda Propaganda was a tool of the Nazi Party in Germany from its earliest days to the end of the regime in May 1945 at the end of World War II. As the party gained power, the scope and efficacy of its propaganda grew and permeated an increasing amou ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. In 1946 she was convicted of an offence under the Defence Regulations and sentenced to nine months' imprisonment.

Biography

Pearl Vardon was a school teacher on Jersey when the island fell under the

German occupation of the Channel Islands The military occupation of the Channel Islands by Nazi Germany lasted for most of the Second World War, from 30 June 1940 until liberation on 9 May 1945. The Bailiwick of Jersey and Bailiwick of Guernsey are British Crown dependencies in the ...

in 1940. As she spoke German, she found herself ordered by the German administration to work locally as an interpreter for a construction company based in

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

. She began a relationship with a

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the German Army (1935–1945), ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmac ...

officer,

Oberleutnant (English: First Lieutenant) is a senior lieutenant Officer (armed forces), officer rank in the German (language), German-speaking armed forces of Germany (Bundeswehr), the Austrian Armed Forces, and the Swiss Armed Forces. In Austria, ''Oberle ...

Siegfried Schwatlo, and when he was posted to Germany in 1944 she decided to go with him.

Propaganda for Nazi Germany

Vardon began employment as an announcer at

Radio Luxembourg Radio Luxembourg was a multilingual commercial broadcaster in Luxembourg. It is known in most non-English languages as RTL (for Radio Television Luxembourg). The English-language service of Radio Luxembourg began in 1933 as one of the earlies ...

for the DES, the Deutsche Europasender. She introduced music and programmes such as ''Ladies First'' which criticised the USA and praised Germany's social security system, and ''Matters of Moment'' which gave news from a German perspective. More significantly, in ''For the Forces and their Kin'', she read out letters written by British

POW POW is "prisoner of war", a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict. POW or pow may also refer to: Music * P.O.W (Bullet for My Valentine song), "P.O.W" (Bull ...

s for their families back home. A German colleague later said of Vardon's attitude that she "simply hated all things English and loved all things German". In mid 1944 she was evacuated to

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

and in October 1944 she was working at Apen in

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...

until the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

drew close on the advancing Eastern Front.

Arrest and trial

Vardon fled from Apen to

Wilhelmshaven Wilhelmshaven (, ''Wilhelm's Harbour''; Northern Low Saxon: ''Willemshaven'') is a coastal town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the western side of the Jade Bight, a bay of the North Sea, and has a population of 76,089. Wilhelmsha ...

, arriving on 30 April 1945. She was arrested there when she enquired how to obtain new identity papers and she was then held by the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

at Esterwegen Internment Camp, the former Esterwegen concentration camp, where she was interrogated. Vardon was tried at the

Old Bailey The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly referred to as the Old Bailey after the street on which it stands, is a criminal court building in central London, one of several that house the Crown Court of England and Wales. The s ...

in February 1946. There she pleaded guilty to the offence of ‘doing an act likely to assist the enemy’ and was given a nine-month prison sentence.

After release

Pearl Vardon eventually married Siegfried Schwatlo in 1950 at

Abergavenny Abergavenny (; , , archaically , ) is a market town and Community (Wales), community in Monmouthshire, Wales. Abergavenny is promoted as a "Gateway to Wales"; it is approximately from the England–Wales border, border with England and is loca ...

Monmouthshire Monmouthshire ( ; ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county in the South East Wales, south east of Wales. It borders Powys to the north; the English counties of Herefordshire and Gloucestershire to the north and east; the Severn Estuary to the s ...

. She died in November 2011, in Weißenburg, Bavaria, Germany, at the age of 96.

Declassified files

The declassified

MI5 MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), officially the Security Service, is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Gov ...

files on her were released by the

Public Record Office The Public Record Office (abbreviated as PRO, pronounced as three letters and referred to as ''the'' PRO), Chancery Lane in the City of London, was the guardian of the national archives of the United Kingdom from 1838 until 2003, when it was m ...

in 2000. They show that British prosecutors were inclined to take a more lenient attitude towards female collaborators such as Vardon and Margaret Joyce, the wife of the traitor

William Joyce William Brooke Joyce (24 April 1906 – 3 January 1946), nicknamed Lord Haw-Haw, was an American-born Fascism, fascist and Propaganda of Nazi Germany, Nazi propaganda broadcaster during the World War II, Second World War. After moving from ...

, than with their male counterparts. The MI5 report on Vardon states, ‘Her motive seems to have been the clear one of avoiding as much as possible separation from the German officer with whom she fell in love’ but added, ‘It is just possible that her motives were not so simple as they appear to have been on the surface’. The Security Service file on her is held by The

National Archives National archives are the archives of a country. The concept evolved in various nations at the dawn of modernity based on the impact of nationalism upon bureaucratic processes of paperwork retention. Conceptual development From the Middle Ages i ...

under referenc
KV 2/256
and the

Home Office The Home Office (HO), also known (especially in official papers and when referred to in Parliament) as the Home Department, is the United Kingdom's interior ministry. It is responsible for public safety and policing, border security, immigr ...

file on her is held there under referenc
HO 45/25811

References

External links

"News in Brief."
Times, London, England, 6 Feb. 1946: 2. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 20 Mar. 2015.
"Charge Of Aiding Enemy."
Times, London, England, 7 Feb. 1946: 2. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 20 Mar. 2015.
"News in Brief."
Times, London, England, 28 Feb. 1946: 2. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 15 Apr. 2015. {{DEFAULTSORT:Vardon, Pearl 1915 births 1972 deaths British broadcasters for Nazi Germany Jersey collaborators with Nazi Germany Jersey prisoners and detainees Nazis convicted of crimes Prisoners and detainees of the United Kingdom