Article published recently: March 18, 2024

“This intricate psychological game was the invention of Sefton Delmer, a largely forgotten genius of propaganda. As Director of Special Operations at the British Political Warfare Executive, he ran dozens of such covert stations across occupied Europe in many languages, working with a troupe of artists, academics, spies, soldiers, psychiatrists, and forgers. Refugees from Berlin’s cabaret scene acted and wrote the scripts of radio shows. Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, enabled Delmer. Many of Delmer’s most important collaborators were Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany pretending to be Nazis in order to subvert Nazi propaganda from inside, dressing up as their own torturers in order to take revenge. Delmer’s experiences has much to teach us—good and ill—about how to win information wars today. But to appreciate how he came up with a form of propaganda that involved both broadcaster and audience playing such a curious masquerade, we need to understand his past, and what it tells us about propaganda in the first place.”