How Hollywood Helped Hitler (Exclusive)
Okay some of this is pretty shocking given our hindsight. But how was working Hollywood to really understand in the 1930’s what was going to happen starting in 1939 and on? From my reading few understood the scope of the oncoming holocaust. Perhaps via some denial. This reminds me a little bit of our shock at the founding fathers having slaves i.e. shockingly not being abolitionists way ahead of their time.
Another point here is the similar controversy with Chinese interests in America cinema studios and theaters. Is this one authors subtle slap at how our studios now change films to appease Chinese sensitivities? Red Dawn (awful remake of an already poor movie) sure got changed. Did you notice a Chinese company recently bought the (Formerly) Manns Chinese Theater in Hollywood? Or that they are a big factor in bankrolling films?
How much of this is a warning that caters to anti Chinese sentiment?
Enough of my thinking, take a look and lets see for yourself.
In devastating detail, an excerpt from a controversial new book reveals how the big studios, desperate to protect German business, let Nazis censor scripts, remove credits from Jews, get movies stopped and even force one MGM executive to divorce his Jewish wife.
The Nazis threatened to exclude American movies — more than 250 played in Germany after Hitler took power in 1933 — unless the studios cooperated. Before World War I, the German market had been the world’s second largest, and even though it had shrunk during the Great Depression, the studios believed it would bounce back and worried that if they left, they would never be able to return.
Beginning with wholesale changes made to Universal’s 1930 release All Quiet on the Western Front, Hollywood regularly ran scripts and finished movies by German officials for approval. When they objected to scenes or dialogue they thought made Germany look bad, criticized the Nazis or dwelled on the mistreatment of Jews, the studios would accommodate them — and make cuts in the American versions as well as those shown elsewhere in the world.
It was not only scenes: Nazi pressure managed to kill whole projects critical of the rise of Adolf Hitler. Indeed, Hollywood would not make an important anti-Nazi film until 1940. Hitler was obsessed with the propaganda power of film, and the Nazis actively promoted American movies like 1937’s Captains Courageous that they thought showcased Aryan values.