Are you interested in more reading about Nazis in Hollywood? You’ve come to the right place!

As I was researching my previous novel, In A Far-Off Land, I came across a book titled Hitler in Los Angeles, by Steven J. Ross. At first, I didn’t believe it.  Nazis in Hollywood in the early 1930s? Plots to take over the film industry and assassinate prominent Jewish actors and directors? It sounded too outlandish to be true. But it was.

After reading Ross’s book, a finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize, I looked into the research and found even more information in the archives of California State University Northridge, which houses boxes of Leon Lewis’s records and correspondence. Much of that research went into Code Name Edelweiss. Another important source I used in writing about MGM Studio and everyday life in 1930s Los Angeles came from the Federal Writers Project publication: Los Angeles in the 1930s. And of course, I found historic details from newspapers articles, magazines and maps from the time period.

If you’re interested in learning more about this fascinating event, scroll down for the links to some of my sources.

• • • Hitler in Los Angeles, Steven J. Ross, Bloomsbury Publishing 2017

  
  

  • • California State University Northridge Digital Library: In Our Own Backyard Digital Collection and Resisting Nazi Propaganda Digital Exhibit

  
  

  • • Los Angeles in the 1930s, Federal Writers Project of the Works Progress Administration

  
  

  • Newspaper articles from the Los Angeles Times (1933 – 1935) and other newspapers as found in Newspapers.com
  • The German Propaganda Archive of Calivin University is a chilling look at the original plans Nazi Germany used to propagandize their own people.
  • Silver Screen Modes has a great virtual tour of the MGM lot during the 1930s
  • The Los Angeles Library has a fun collection of restaurant menus from the past hundred years that I used for writing authentic restaurant scenes.
  • Another fun page is a list of the Top 10 Candies of the 1930s for those of you with a sweet tooth. Surprisingly, these are still some of America’s favorite treats.
  • The Los Angeles Police Department’s page on the history of the LAPD was one of the sources I used to get details on Fritz’s job as a policeman and the workings of the department in the 1930s.
  • American Experience has compiled a page of newspaper articles that chronicle the media’s response to Hitler in 1933 that reminds us that in that time, people didn’t know what to think of the new German Chancellor.