Did Hollywood Help Hitler?

Did Hollywood studios help the Nazi war effort to boost their own profits in the 1930s? 

Ben Urwand, a Harvard Fellow and author of the new book, Collaboration: Hollywood’s Pact with Hitler will lead off this fall’s Distinguished Lecturer series sponsored by the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center (HHREC) on Wednesday, October 16th in the Ursuline School Auditorium, 1354 North Avenue, New Rochelle, NY, adjacent to Temple Israel. The lecture begins at 7 PM; donations are accepted.  An optional pre-lecture dinner begins at 5:30 PM and the cost is $15—RSVP required.  There will be a question-and-answer period following the lecture.

Urwand’s book is a shocker—it includes revealing research that demonstrates how Hollywood studios run by Jewish executives put concerns about their profits from film sales in Germany ahead of the gathering storm of anti-Semitic propaganda that led to mass genocide, in many cases capitulating to Nazi censorship of American movies.

Mr. Urwand’s research found that throughout the 1930s, US movie studios prevented any movies critical of Hitler from being made while removing references to Jews from films they did make.  Big studios like MGM and 20th Century Fox solicited Hitler’s input on films to see what he personally liked and didn’t like. The studios’ actions made it difficult for the American public to recognize the seriousness of the Nazi threat to Jews and world peace.

The HHREC lecture will be Mr. Urwand’s first New York-area appearance on his international book tour. For more information and tickets, contact HHREC Executive Director Millie Jasper, mjasper@hhrecny.org or 914.696.0738.  The Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center is headquartered in White Plains