Anti-Nazi Activities in Hollywood, 1933-1945

FAIN: FA-58237-15

Steven Joseph Ross
University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA 90089-0012)

Scholars have long wondered how the world, and especially its Jews, could have turned a blind eye for so long to the dangers posed by the rise of Nazism in Europe and the U.S. These scholars have asked the wrong question. Jews did act. "Hitler in Los Angeles: How Jews and their Spies Foiled Nazi and Fascist Plots Against Hollywood and America" challenges these accusations by revealing the hitherto unknown story of the most compelling instance of American Jewish resistance to Nazism and fascism in the pre-World War II era. From August 1933 until the end of World War II, Leon Lewis ran a spy ring comprised largely of military veterans and their wives who infiltrated every Nazi and fascist group in Los Angeles. Over the next twelve years, Lewis' spies uncovered a series of Nazi plots to kill the city's Jews and to sabotage the nation's military installations. These spy reports shed new light on Nazi plans for Germany's New Order in America.

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