With all due respect, Wodehouse was seized upon by the Nazis and not interned under what anyone would call "comfortable conditions." He lost a lot of weight in the prison camp, as evidenced by photos taken before and after his internment. He had it better than people being gassed in the death camps, true, but that was only because he wasn't Jewish, Catholic or physically handicapped. And his radio broadcasts had nothing to do with "collaboring with the Nazis," at least not in his own head. He THOUGHT that he'd be reassuring his friends back home, spreading the word that he was still alive and okay. He meant to demonstrate a plucky good humor under trying circumstances, all part of his stiff-upper-lip-keep-smiling-English mindset. He was trying to make his audience FEEL BETTER through the broadcasts, just as he tried to spread good cheer through his writing. Have you read PGW's books? They're all about making people FEEL BETTER. That's what the man was all about. And yes, politically he was a complete ignoramus. He was so naive, in fact, that the Nazis easily made a tool of him, but PG didn't realize until AFTER THE FACT what a mistake he'd made. He had no malice aforethought and no treachery whatsoever in his heart.
To understand Wodehouse you need to remember that he lived apart from the real world most of the time. He was totally absorbed in his writing. He lived and breathed and had his being in the la-la land of Jeeves and Blandings Castle and Mr. Mulliner, fictitious constructs that seemed more real to him than present-day actualities. Read any of the articles and/or books published about all this---Wodehouse at War is a notable example,--- and you'll see how essentially innocent the man was. Innocent and naive---yes. But criminal? No. Queen Elizabeth understood this which is why she knighted him just before his death. So let's remember what a sweet, funny man Wodehouse was and put his war years in proper perspective. Surely,after 69 years, we can do that.
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