Walter Bingham (MM)

This article is about the British-Israeli journalist and Military Medal recipient. For other people with same name, see Walter Bingham (disambiguation).
Walter Bingham
Born 1924
Weimar Republic, Germany
Occupation Journalist

Walter Bingham MM, born Wolfgang Billig in Karlsruhe, Weimar Republic 1924, is a British-Israeli journalist, actor, entrepreneur, holocaust survivor and decorated WWII veteran.[1] He made Aliyah to Israel in 2004.[2] At age 91 in 2015, Walter is Israel's oldest field journalist.[3]

Walter was a driver in the British Royal Army Service Corps, took part in the invasion of Normandy in June 1944 and was subsequently transferred to Counter Intelligence, where he also interviewed Nazi foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop who denied all knowledge of the Holocaust.

“ I spoke to Ribbentrop (..) He was good looking and spoke excellent English. He had the cheek to say he knew nothing about the destruction of the Jews. He was the first to be hanged.[4] ”
— Walter Bingham, Jerusalem Post, 2011.[1]

Walter Bingham was active in an Orthodox Zionist youth group, preparing him to agricultural Kibbutz life in Mandatory Palestine. He survived the holocaust because of a Kindertransport to Great Brittain in 1939, where he lived for the most part in a Zionist Kibbutz type community.[5] Bingham witnessed the Nazi book burnings that followed soon after the Nazi Seizure of Power.[3] He took part on the front line in the Normandy landings of 1944.[1][6]

He is a Military Medal recipient, awarded for ‘Bravery in the Field’. Recipients of the Military Medal are entitled to use the post-nominal letters "MM".[7]

Later, Bingham had a career as a journalist in Britain and Israel and as an actor,[8] amongst others in several Harry Potter films.[9]


References

  1. 1 2 3 "Arrivals: A true professional" (Features). Jpost Inc. jpost.com. 3 June 2011. Retrieved 29 June 2015.
  2. ↑ Bingham, Walter. "Walter Bingham speech in Jerusalem - How Walter Changed His Name". Israel Beat Jewish Music Podcast. Retrieved 29 June 2015.
  3. 1 2 "Walter Bingham at 91". JPost.com. Jerusalem Post. 22 January 2015. Retrieved 29 June 2015.
  4. ↑ After conviction at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials.
  5. ↑ "About Walter Bingham". Arutz Sheva. Retrieved 29 June 2015.
  6. ↑ Bingham, Walter. "In The Last Days TV Programme 12 - Walter Bingham - Eyewitness to The Holocaust". youtube.com. In The Last Days TV Programme. Retrieved 29 June 2015.
  7. ↑ Duffy, Michael. "Encyclopedia: Military Medal". Retrieved 4 May 2014.
  8. ↑ "Walter Bingham (actor)". IMDb.com, Inc. Retrieved 29 June 2015.
  9. ↑ "Walter Bingham Knows Jewish History, Because He Lived It". israelnationalnews.com. Arutz Sheva. Retrieved 29 June 2015.


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