Sefton Delmer
Illustration, not an archive object
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Head of the Political Warfare Executive's black radio and leaflet unit (1941 to 1945) · United Kingdom
On the regime page: Churchill wartime government
5 quotes, oldest first. Filter with other speakers.
“Dalton decided that we should reply in kind. The BBC of course, could not be entrusted with such an ungentlemanly task. So he decided that PID should launch a short wave station which would pretend to be operating from somewhere in Hitler's Europe. It would be "Black" ; that is to say it would be top secret and disavowable.”
Written in 1972 as a retrospective on his unit's work for the Foreign Office's Political Intelligence Department (the cover name of the Political Warfare Executive's black-propaganda section), and framed as a reply to the 1970s debate on pornography. Delmer describes how Hugh Dalton, as Minister of Economic Warfare, decided to start a black short-wave station.
Sefton Delmer, "H.M.G.'s secret pornographer" (essay dated 1972), text hosted by the Delmer family at seftondelmer.co.uk/hmg.htm Source
Content note: Sexual content used in propaganda; comparison to Julius Streicher. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why
“I decided to use radio-pornography to catch their attention. My "Chef" ( Hitler was always called "Der Chef" by those in his inner circle so I decided to call my veteran hero "Der Chef") became a kind of radio Streicher, except that the victims of his pornographic tirades were Nazis, not Jews.”
Written in 1972 as a retrospective on his unit's work for the Foreign Office's Political Intelligence Department (the cover name of the Political Warfare Executive's black-propaganda section), and framed as a reply to the 1970s debate on pornography. He explains how he gave the broadcaster "Der Chef" of the station Gustav Siegfried Eins sexual stories about Nazi officials.
Sefton Delmer, "H.M.G.'s secret pornographer" (essay dated 1972), text hosted by the Delmer family at seftondelmer.co.uk/hmg.htm Source
Content note: Invented sexual stories about named people. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why
“I took an enormous amount of trouble over the Chef's erotica and devoted many hours of patient research to finding ever new forms sexual depravity to attribute to our victims in the Hitler machine.”
Written in 1972 as a retrospective on his unit's work for the Foreign Office's Political Intelligence Department (the cover name of the Political Warfare Executive's black-propaganda section), and framed as a reply to the 1970s debate on pornography. He describes preparing the sexual stories that the station attributed to named Nazi officials.
Sefton Delmer, "H.M.G.'s secret pornographer" (essay dated 1972), text hosted by the Delmer family at seftondelmer.co.uk/hmg.htm Source
“But here is the point I am trying to make; we did not use pornography because we thought it would have a deleterious effect on our German listeners. We used it simply for its listener appeal-- just as some popular newspapers use scabrous stories and pictures of scantily clad models to increase their circulation.”
Written in 1972 as a retrospective on his unit's work for the Foreign Office's Political Intelligence Department (the cover name of the Political Warfare Executive's black-propaganda section), and framed as a reply to the 1970s debate on pornography. He states why his unit used sexual material in its broadcasts.
Sefton Delmer, "H.M.G.'s secret pornographer" (essay dated 1972), text hosted by the Delmer family at seftondelmer.co.uk/hmg.htm Source
Content note: Justifies invented sexual propaganda as a means to defeat Hitler. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why
“Do I regret this pornography which I perpetrated during my few years as a temporary government servant ? I certainly do not on morale grounds. As far as I was concerned, anything was in order which helped to defeat Hitler. And I don't regret the Chef's forays into erotic propaganda. it helped him get launched much more quickly than he would have been without it.”
Written in 1972 as a retrospective on his unit's work for the Foreign Office's Political Intelligence Department (the cover name of the Political Warfare Executive's black-propaganda section), and framed as a reply to the 1970s debate on pornography. He answers his own question whether he regrets the material.
Sefton Delmer, "H.M.G.'s secret pornographer" (essay dated 1972), text hosted by the Delmer family at seftondelmer.co.uk/hmg.htm Source
Often attributed, not verified
These words circulate under Sefton Delmer’s name but could not be traced to a source. They are listed so readers can check them, not as Sefton Delmer’s words.
“cover, cover, dirt, cover, dirt”
The phrase is quoted in many secondary works (including the Smithsonian Magazine article on Soldatensender Calais) as Delmer's own words, but the book's text was only available as a lending copy and the page could not be read, so the sentence and page were not checked.
“psychological judo”
Reported as Delmer's phrase in a magazine article that does not give the source or page; Black Boomerang was not available to read.