Just Read the Title - Hollywood vs Nazis!

Benson, Michael.  Hollywood vs Nazis: How the Movie Studios Took on Nazis Infiltrating Los Angeles.  New York: Citadel Press, 2026.  ISBN: 9780806544786

 

Welcome to the land of greed and glitter where the dream factories reside - AKA Hollywood!  In the 1930s, the movie studios were very big in Hollywood making pictures that were shown world wide.  Hitler and the Nazis wanted into that action so they sent folks over to California to infiltrate the movie studios and shift their focus to movies more to their liking.  Michael Benson takes the reader along for the ride into this bit of little-known history in Hollywood vs Nazis!

 

In twenty-four chapters, an epilogue, and an interesting appendix, Michael Benson sets the stage of Los Angeles in the 1930s where corruption, oil, and movies ruled.  When Goebbels sent folks to America they did not quite know the ground rules in play.  The Friends of New Germany started meeting in 1933 and opposition to these meeting started soon after.  In Hollywood, a Jewish lawyer named Leon Lewis started an organization to infiltrate the infiltrators and spy out their secrets to be revealed at an opportune time.  Lewis also got together with Jewish organizations and various movie moguls such at the Warner Brothers who provided monetary support for the spies.  Lewis's organization uncovered Nazis plans for harassment, armed uprisings, and general mayhem.  At various times the organization worked with the LA cops, the California government, and occasionally the U.S. House UnAmerican Activities Committee to thwart the Nazis plans and derail various white supremacist organizations as well.  In the end, Hollywood won and the Nazis never did get the foothold they wanted in California.

 

So, if you are interested in a popular telling of the little known history of Hollywood during the 1930s to early 1940s, pick up Michael Benson's Hollywood vs Nazis and be entertained while learning.