I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I came across Steven Ross' book, "Hitler in Los Angeles". I was pretty sure Hitler never visited Los Angeles, so was curious about the title and subject. While Hitler may not have visited L.S., Ross writes about Hitler's many supporters in America in the late 1930's and early 1940's. Anti-Semitic attitudes weren't rare in the United States during this period, but those attitudes seemed to be increasing among many German-Americans and pro-Nazi groups during the period of Hitler's leadership. Anti-communist feelings were also strong at the time, and it didn't help that many people believed that many Jews were also communists or communist sympathizers. People were also looking for new leadership and political change at this time coming out of the Great Depression, so groups working behind the scenes toward the overthrow of Democracy weren't necessarily considered fringe groups.

With this as background, Ross looks in some detail at Hitler followers who were plotting against Jews and Communists in California and elsewhere. The German-American Bund was one paramilitary group with tens of thousands of members supportive of Nazi practices. Another group was the Silvershirts, founded by a sometime Hollywood screenwriter, William Pelly. Sounding eerily similar to some political sentiments of today, Pelly pushed an "America First" movement. Television wasn't available at the time, so Pelly didn't complain about the Media, but he did become critical of Hollywood movies. He also labeled movie moguls as rapists and perverts, and blamed them for hiring hiring Jewish actors and writers, complaining that they took good jobs from Gentiles. His Silvershirts, partially funded by German agents, armed themselves, were dedicated to Christian beliefs, keeping America White and Christian, and to political change. Pelly looked at himself as being the "American Fuhrer".

With Hitler oppressing Jews in Europe, there was concern that pro-Nazi groups active in the United States would do the same. Jewish leaders ​especially became fearful that some of Hitler's pre-war pogroms against Jews in Germany could lead to violence against Jews in the U.S. Given how ineffective resistance to Nazi persecutions of Jews in Europe appeared to have been, some in the American Jewish community felt the need to stand up to and resist anti-Semitic groups.

And that is the main focus of Ross' book. The leader of this Jewish resistance in the U.S. in the late 1930's was Leon Lewis, a Jewish lawyer in Los Angeles. Ross discusses Lewis and the activities of his tiny group, and what steps they took to prevent ​American ​anti-Semitic groups​ ​from adopting and fostering Nazi attitudes in the U.S. Lewis organized an informal spy network to infiltrate American Nazi groups, mostly in California. Lewis and his small group was surprisingly effective in identifying anti-American groups and individuals, and disrupting their activities. If not for Lewis and his group, political extremism and Nazi attitudes in California and the U.S. could have been much worse.
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The chilling, little-known story of the rise of Nazism in Los Angeles, and the Jewish leaders and spies they recruited who stopped it.