Walter Bingham (journalist)

Walter Bingham MM, born Wolfgang Billig in Karlsruhe, Weimar Republic 1924, is a British-Israeli journalist, actor, entrepreneur, holocaust survivor and decorated World War II veteran.[1] He made Aliyah to Israel in 2004.[2] At age 95 in 2019, Walter is Israel's oldest working journalist.[3] He holds the Guinness World Record as oldest Radio Talkshow Host.

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
Bingham in 2018
Born	1924 Weimar Republic, Germany
Occupation	Journalist

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 Britain 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] and also Kristallnacht. He took part on the front line in the Normandy landings of 1944.[1][6]

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.

Walter is a Military Medal recipient, awarded for ‘Bravery in the Field’ by King George VI. Recipients of the Military Medal are entitled to use the post-nominal letters "MM".[7] In February 2018 he was awarded France's highest honour, the Légion d'honneur for his participation in the Normandy landings.[8][9]

Later, Bingham had a career as a journalist and broadcaster in Britain. He also acted in numerous movies and TV shows. Among his acting credits is a wizard in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.[10] as well as numerous roles in various TV documentaries calling for older men with white beards.[11] He was also an advertising model and Santa Claus in London's premier department stores Harrods and Selfridges.

Since 2004 has hosted "Walter's World" a weekly radio magazine programme on Israel National News[12] and since 2016 The Walter Bingham File on Israel News Talk Radio.[13]

In 2018 Bingham became the world's oldest skydiver when he participated in a parachute jump in northern Israel.[14]