Hitler in Los Angeles: How Jews Foiled Nazi Plots Against Hollywood and America

Author: Steven J Ross

No American city was more important to the Nazis than Los Angeles, home to Hollywood, the greatest propaganda machine in the world. The Nazis plotted to kill the city's Jews and sabotage the nation's military installations. Plans existed for murdering 24 prominent Hollywood figures, including Al Jolson, Charlie Chaplin, and Louis B. Mayer; for driving through Boyle Heights and machine-gunning as many Jews as possible; and for blowing up defense installations and seizing munitions from National Guard armories along the Pacific Coast.

US law enforcement agencies were not paying close attention—preferring to monitor Reds rather than Nazis—and only attorney Leon Lewis and his daring ring of spies stood in the way. From 1933 until the end of World War II, Lewis, the man Nazis would come to call “the most dangerous Jew in Los Angeles,” ran a spy operation composed of military veterans and their wives who infiltrated every Nazi and Fascist group in Los Angeles. Often rising to leadership positions, they uncovered and foiled the Nazis’ disturbing plans for death and destruction.

Paperback

432 pages