Harold Cole: British Traitor Who Betrayed 150 Resistance Fighters to the Gestapo

World History: True Stories of the 20th Century · Sep 6, 2026 · 14m

Harold Cole became one of Britain’s most notorious traitors of the Second World War. A thief, con artist, and British soldier, he infiltrated resistance and escape networks in occupied France before betraying the people who trusted him to the Gestapo.

Born in London’s East End and raised in poverty, Cole developed early into a skilled liar and criminal. When war broke out in 1939, he joined the British Army but was imprisoned after stealing from his own unit. During the chaos surrounding Dunkirk, he escaped and remained in occupied France, where he reinvented himself as a supposed hero…