Hollywood’s War on Hate
An exhibit at the New York campus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion shows Hollywood movie posters from the Holocaust era. The posters, part of lawyer Ken Sutak’s personal collection, offer a glimpse into the Hollywood of the 1930s and ’40s, revealing how the film industry independently went to war against the Nazis starting in 1935 — six years before the United States.
Two of the largest studios, United Artists and Warner Bros., chose not to bow to German pressures to ban Jewish film employees and restrict the content. The American government also imposed sanctions on the industry under the guise of wishing to remain “neutral.” But Hollywood did not comply. Warner Bros., which was shaped by Jewish immigrants Harry Warner and his brothers, rejected the pressure to comply with the German government and instead chose to make pointedly anti-Nazi films. United Artists — run by Charlie Chaplin, among others — reorganized its distribution in Germany and retained its Jewish employees. And Chaplin would add a very personal touch in 1940 when he starred in “The Great Dictator,” a satire of Adolf Hitler and Nazism.
“Cinema Judaica: The War Years” runs through July 7.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
