Hollywood's spies : the undercover surveillance of Nazis in Los Angeles / Laura B. Rosenzweig.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rosenzweig, Laura B., author.

Series:

Goldstein-Goren series in American Jewish history

The Goldstein-Goren series in American Jewish history

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Nazis in motion pictures.

Anti-Nazi movement--California--Los Angeles.

Anti-Nazi movement.

Motion picture industry--California--Los Angeles--History--20th century.

Motion picture industry.

Motion pictures--Political aspects--United States--History--20th century.

Motion pictures.

Motion pictures--Political aspects.

History.

Hollywood (Los Angeles, Calif.)--History--20th century.

Hollywood (Los Angeles, Calif.).

California--Los Angeles.

California--Los Angeles--Hollywood.

United States.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xiii, 285 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York : New York University Press, [2017]

Summary:

"Confessions of a Nazi Spy may have been the first cinematic shot fired by Hollywood against Nazis in America, but it by no means marked the political awakening of the film industry's Jewish executives to the problem. Hollywood's Spies tells the remarkable story of the Jewish moguls in Hollywood who paid private investigators to infiltrate Nazi groups operating in Los Angeles, establishing the first anti-Nazi Jewish resistance organization in the country--the Los Angeles Jewish Community Committee (LAJCC). Drawing on more than 15,000 pages of archival documents, Laura B. Rosenzweig offers a compelling narrative illuminating the role that Jewish Americans played in combating insurgent Nazism in the United States in the 1930s. Forced undercover by the anti-Semitic climate of the decade, the LAJCC partnered with organizations whose Americanism was unimpeachable, such as the American Legion, to channel information regarding seditious Nazi plots to Congress, the Justice Department, the FBI and the Los Angeles Police Department. Hollywood's Spies corrects the decades-long belief that American Jews lacked the political organization and leadership to assert their political interests during this period in our history and reveals that the LAJCC was one of many covert 'fact finding' operations funded by Jewish Americans designed to root out Nazism in the United States"--Publisher description.

Contents:

Prelude, 1933-1934. Nazis in Los Angeles ; Becoming Hollywood's spies ; The McCormack-Dickstein Committee

Undercover, 1935-1941. The proclamation ; Discovering the Berlin connection ; Discovering the Nazi fifth column

Resistance, 1935-1941. Local mission, national calling ; The Dies Committee ; The News Research Service

Legacy. The war years and beyond

Afterword

Appendix 1: Partial list of right-wing individuals and groups investigated by the LAJCC, 1936/46

Appendix 2: Key to spy codes

Appendix 3: Los Angeles Jewish Community Committee, June 1934

Appendix 1. Partial list of right-wing individuals and groups investigated by the LAJCC, 1933-45

Appendix 2. Key to spy codes

Appendix 3. Los Angeles Jewish Community Committee, June 1934

Appendix 4. Los Angeles Jewish Community Committee, November 1942.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 263-273) and index.

ISBN:

9781479855179

1479855170

OCLC:

983427663