Oxford University has faced criticism for accepting millions of pounds in donations from a trust controlled by the late Max Mosley, son of British fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley. An investigation by the Daily Mail, drawing on British and overseas intelligence files, has uncovered details about the Nazi and fascist origins of the Mosley family's wealth.
Files from MI5, MI6, the CIA, and government archives in Switzerland, Ireland, Belgium, France, and South Africa, along with testimony from former members of Sir Oswald Mosley's post-war Union Movement, suggest the family's fortune was built on money from Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler. The report also indicates involvement in ransoming Jews to avoid death camps and post-war dealings with former Nazi officials and anti-Semites.
These revelations emerged after former Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger, then principal of Lady Margaret Hall at Oxford, personally solicited funds from Max Mosley. The university later awarded Mosley a distinguished honor.
Nazi and Fascist Funding
While the Mosley family's wealth was initially rooted in land ownership, by the early 1930s, Sir Oswald Mosley faced financial difficulties due to legal bills. According to Special Branch files, he opened a secret bank account in March 1933 to receive illicit funds from Mussolini, amounting to £60,000 over two years, equivalent to approximately £3.5 million today.
When Mussolini's funding ceased in 1936, Mosley reportedly turned to the Nazis. Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's propaganda chief, noted in his diary that Mosley needed money and had already received £2,000, with a further £60,000 promised. Goebbels later recorded securing £10,000 for Mosley, smuggled to him via a Nazi operative in London.
The Ransomed Rothschild
In 1938, following Hitler's annexation of Austria, members of the Jewish Rothschild banking family reportedly sought Sir Oswald Mosley's assistance in securing the release of Baron Louis Nathaniel de Rothschild, who was being held by the Nazis in Vienna. Evidence examined by MI5 suggests that Mosley was to be paid £120,000 by the Rothschilds in Paris for his role in facilitating the release, with a Belgian financier acting as an intermediary. It is reported that Diana Mosley, a known Nazi sympathizer, traveled to Berlin to see Heinrich Himmler, who subsequently ordered Rothschild's release.
Post-War Dealings and South African Investments
After the war, Oswald Mosley moved to Ireland and established bank accounts abroad to circumvent British exchange controls. In 1951, he met with high-ranking neo-Nazis in Basel, Switzerland, including former SS commander Alfred Franke-Gricksch and Luftwaffe ace Hans-Ulrich Rudel. The meeting aimed to discuss the international unification of far-right groups. Swiss authorities were reportedly concerned about Mosley's post-war dealings with Nazis, and he was banned from entering Switzerland for life.
The Mosleys also engaged in publishing ventures promoting neo-Nazi propaganda. Diana Mosley arranged an advance royalty payment to Rudel for the English translation of his memoir, "Stuka Pilot," which became a commercially successful publication.
Max Mosley was involved in neo-fascist activities from a young age. In 1962, he attended a meeting in Venice with his father, Rudel, SS commando Otto Skorzeny, and Gudrun Burwitz, daughter of Heinrich Himmler.
Throughout the period, Oswald Mosley maintained a business relationship with Swiss neo-Nazi financier Francois Genoud, who was involved in managing Third Reich assets and financing terror groups. CIA files from the mid-1950s noted Mosley's connections to an international conspiracy of "hard-core Nazis."
By the late 1950s, Oswald Mosley had rebuilt his financial empire, including properties in London, Paris, and Ireland. He notably transferred significant wealth into the stock market of apartheid South Africa. Both Oswald and Max Mosley publicly denounced financial boycotts of the South African regime.
Max Mosley's career in Formula One was closely linked to South Africa. In 1970, Oswald Mosley introduced his son to the chairman of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, Tony Fergusson, as Max launched his racing career there. The purchase of the Kyalami race circuit near Johannesburg in 1980 was a key part of the motorsport empire Max built, negotiated directly with representatives of the apartheid regime.
Early Political Involvement and Violence
In his youth, Max Mosley was involved in political street clashes. In February 1958, he and his brother Alexander were identified as participants in an attack on a Conservative political meeting. Later that year, during racial violence in Notting Hill, London, Max Mosley was photographed with a bandaged hand and stated a desire to see "a lot of these negroes out of our country."
In 1959, following the stabbing death of a young West Indian man in Notting Hill, Sir Oswald Mosley held a rally at the murder site. While an undergraduate at Oxford, Max Mosley was arrested and fined for obstructing a police officer during a demonstration against the Sharpeville massacre in South Africa. He was part of a group carrying weapons and a banner that read "Mosley for White Britain."