Final days of the Third Reich Choosing suicide over surrender Leipzig April 19, 1945

Lord Haw-Haw was the name British listeners gave to William Joyce, a German radio propaganda broadcaster during World War II. Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1906, Joyce moved with his English mother and Irish-American father to England in 1921. He joined the Nazi movement in England in the mid-'30s and fled to Germany just before war broke in 1939. He immediately became a broadcaster for Joseph Goebbel's Propaganda Ministry. His radio program reached England weekly from 1939 to 1945.

On the night of April 30, 1945, a drunken Joyce made his last broadcast from Hamburg as British troops entered the city. With his adopted world crashing down around him, but still committed to the Nazi cause, Joyce rambled on through his farewell speech. In Berlin, Hitler was simultaneously saying good-bye to his entourage in anticipation of ending his life a few hours later.

Captured by the British, Joyce stood trial for treason. The court denied his claim of American citizenship because he held a British passport. He was found guilty and hanged on January 3, 1946.