Figure 1.--Hollywood was very slow to address the NAZI horror. The first American studio to take on the NAZIs was Warner Brother's with its 1939 film, "Confessiions of a NAZI Spy". It was a spy thriller based on a sensational 1938 trial of a NAZI spy ring. It was controversial at the time in America, but Americans showed their affirmation by the film's strong box office. And the film was difficult to criticize because it was not only factual, but focused on what the NAZIs were doing in America. German Propganda Minister Goebbels, a photo buff, was furious. Just like bombing during the War, he thought that propaganda was only something the NAZIs should be permitted. He promised reperscussion, both to Warner Brothers and the actors and crew. The Germans later hanged Polish theater operators who had shown it. Interestingly, while the film was released a full 6 years after Hitler seized power, it was still before British studios took on the NAZIs. This is a scene accurately depicting a Friends of the New Germany encampment.

Hitler and the NAZIs seized power in Germany in 1933. Mussolini had seized power in Itlaly about a decade earlier, but it is with the NAZI seizure of power that the Fascist peril can be dated. The Japanese agressions in China began a few years earlier with the invasion of Manchuria (1931). I'm not sure at this time just how Hollywood dealt with the German and Japanese threat before the outbreak of War in Europe (September 1939). As best we can determine, there was relatively little reaction from Hollywood to totalitarianism, includng the Soviets, Italian Fascists, NAZIs, and Japanese militarists. It is interesting to note that stridently anti-NAZI films, with few exceptions, only began after Hitler had launched the War. There were no films addressing what the NAZIs were doing for several years in Germany itself (control of the press, book burnings, boycott of Jewish buiness, Nuremberg race laws, pollitical murders, concentration camps, Kristallnacht, ect). We begin seeing a few films with internationist overtones and depicting European Fascists as villians only as Europe moved toward war. United Artists released "Blockade" (1938). This was a overtly pro-Loyalist film about the Spanish Civil War starring Henry Fonda. It was anti-Fascist, but not did not specifically attack the NAZIs. The first American studio to take on the NAZIs was Warner Brothers which released "Confessions of a Nazi Spy" (1939). The premise of the film was that NAZI Germany sought to conquer the world. It targeted the German-American Bund as agents of the NAZI Government attempting to undermine American democracy. (Another film was "Beasts of Berlin" (1939). (A World War I film, "The Kaiser, Beast of Berlin" (1917) caused anti-German riots in American cities.) It is not entirely clear why Hollywood was so reluctant to take on the NAZIs and other totalitarians. Left-wing sentiment in Hollywood may have been a factor in failing to criticize the Soviet Union. The income from European releases seems to have been a factor explaing the reluctance to confront the NAZIs. Another factor may have been the South. Until Kristalncht (November 1938), NAZI policies toward the Jews were not unlike policies toward Afro-Americans in the South. The Conservative Catholic Church may have been another factor. This is a subject that has not been well addressed. WEhile Hollywood was late, it should be noted that it began targetting the NAZIs before the British studios, before the Germans launched the War and nearly 3-years before Pearl Harbor.

Created: 9:07 PM 12/7/2010
Last updated: 9:07 PM 12/7/2010