Nazis in Hollywood? It really happened.

The ‘historical’ part of historical fiction is sometimes the hardest part to believe.

A couple years ago, I was doing some final research on 1930s Los Angeles for my latest release, In A Far-Off Land, and came upon a historical tidbit that seemed unbelievable. I followed that research trail and discovered a story so fascinating, I knew that I had to use it as a basis for my next novel.

Hitler in Los Angeles, by Steven J. Ross is a stunning account of a Jewish lawyer named Leon Lewis and a crew of unusual spies who knew what no one else in the early 1930s believed: that Adolph Hitler was attempting to infiltrate America and sow his Nazi ideas within our cities, especially Los Angeles.

Of course, I found plenty of additional research materials to help me write a novel, and fifteen months later, Code Name Edelweiss was on its way to my editor at Tyndale House.

I’m not the only author who has found the idea of Nazis infiltrating Los Angeles fascinating. I recently read a great spy novel from Susan Elia MacNeal that involved the real history of Leon Lewis and his spies. Susan’s novel, The Hollywood Spy, is part of her Maggie Hope Mystery series, but was perfectly enjoyable as a stand-alone novel. With plenty of name-dropping and classic Hollywood references, it was a fun read. *(see note below)

I contacted Susan to fan-girl about her book and her research on Leon Lewis (we history nerds have to stick together) and she agreed to answer a few questions for me about writing The Hollywood Spy.

The idea of the Nazi influence in Los Angeles is not well known, how did you learn about it and what made you want to include it in your novel series?

This is going to sound completely nuts, but I have to thank the Muppets. Or, rather, I have to thank my husband, who is a professional puppeteer who was performing with the Muppets at the Hollywood Bowl (playing Sweetums in L.A.. He got me a present at the airport bookstore, HITLER IN LOS ANGELES, by Steven R. Ross. I was absolutely gobsmacked, because I knew a bit about Nazis in New York, but nothing about the groups on the west coast. It was a revelation. 

I decided to include some of the story in the newest Maggie Hope novel, THE HOLLYWOOD SPY, because I soon became obsessed with this slice of history—and also I already had a character, John Sterling, living in Los Angeles in 1943 and working for Disney creating propaganda. So the facts of HITLER IN LOS ANGELES and my story seemed to dovetail nicely. 

What did you find most surprising about the story of Leon Lewis and his spy network?

So much was surprising! The lack of interest the police and FBI took in Lewis’s reports on the spies, for one thing. (Although J. Edgar Hoover certainly changed his tune after the attack on Pearl Harbor.) One thing I loved was that everyone was basically an amateaur—and people who were Jewish worked side-by-side with Christian “Gentile” German Americans. Americans at their finest, working together for democracy.

Did you use any real historical people as characters in The Hollywood Spy?

A character named Ari Lewis was inspired by Leon Lewis. I chose the name because Leon is from the Greek for “lion”—and then Ari is Hebrew for “lion of God.” (That’s my little joke to myself—I have no idea if anyone picked up on it…) Some of the agents working for Ari Lewis were also fictionalized. Unfortunately, their deaths, which I included in the novel, were all too real. There was never any ruling on the “accidents” that killed several of Lewis;s spies, but I do believe they were murdered by the Los Angeles Nazis.

What are you working on now?

Right now I’m working on a new, stand-alone novel (my first!), also inspired by the real people in Ross’s HITLER IN LOS ANGELES. It’s the story of an incredibly brave and resourceful mother and daughter duo who worked with Lewis to infiltrate and report back on a number of Nazi groups. Their notes and testimony was invaluable for kicking German Nazis out of the U.S. and getting American Nazis jailed and tried for sedition. I’ve fictionalized the characters, but they’re based on the real people involved, including Leon Lewis. I’ve been researching primary source material with the University of California at Northridge, working with the same original documents Ross did for HITLER IN L.A. It’s a humbling experience to read first-hand what these brave Americans did for our country, and at such risk to their personal safety. They’re an inspiration.

Thank you, Susan, for sharing your research and enthusiasm for this fascinating and little-known piece of America’s past!

*FYI: The Hollywood Spy is not Christian fiction. I’d rate it PG-13 for adult situations and language.

I can’t wait to share my upcoming novel about Leon Lewis and his amateur spies with you! Make sure to sign up for my newsletter to hear about the history of the Nazi network in Los Angeles as I eagerly await the publication of Code Name Edelweiss!

Have you read In a Far-Off Land?