Search Results

Rodgers and Hammerstein brought liberal sensibilities to work and life from the 1930s through the late 1940s. Although Rodgers was perceived as less political than Hammerstein, the 1932 film The Phantom President, written with Lorenz Hart, was a satire about a presidential election, and their stage hit Babes in Arms (1937) endorsed Jewish liberalism. Hammerstein’s liberal leanings were present in his life and his art: from his early days in Hollywood, Hammerstein was involved with the Anti-Nazi League, which drew the attention of the House Un-American Activities Committee, and during World War II, he was a member of the Writers’ War Board, a group that was responsible for the American Red Cross ending its practice of segregating blood by race. While South Pacific was the most politically charged of their collaborations, works such as The King and I nonetheless reflect the duo’s beliefs in world harmony and cultural exchange.

The years leading up to 1939 saw an influx of fascist organizations in Los Angeles. This made the Hollywood moguls ultra-sensitive to homegrown fascism as they began to fight back by funding an underground espionage network, led by attorney Leon Lewis. More public pushback came from the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League, made up of individuals from across the Popular Front. Pro-fascist support began to surface in the form of the Friends of New Germany, German-American Bund, and the Silver Shirt who each had factions in Los Angeles. As the conflict in Europe developed, so did anti-war sentiments in the United States (many were still miffed about our involvement in World War I). This period also saw the rise of anti-Semitic and isolationist voices ranging from Father Charles Coughlin to members of the America First movement.

The introduction outlines the overall subject of the book: the surveillance of anti-Nazi refugees from Hitler's Germany by MI5 during the period 1933–1950. It broaches the major themes pursued in the narrative, such as the distinction between ‘racial’ and ‘political’ refugees and MI5’s preoccupation with the surveillance of Communist refugees throughout the 1930s and 1940s. It also evaluates the scope and content of intelligence in the security files which furnish the subject-matter of the book, including the files relating to the major refugee organisations – the Free German League of Culture, the Austrian Centre and the Czech Refugee Trust Fund. The introduction also poses the question: why has this extensive MI5 operation hitherto remained hidden from history?

The conclusion draws together the main questions which have emerged throughout the book. Firstly: why, in a period leading up to a war against Fascism and during the war itself, did MI5 remain so intensely concerned with the surveillance of Communists. Moreover, why did this surveillance continue and even intensify after the Soviet Union had entered the war in June 1941? Secondly, the chapter attempts to evaluate how successful, or indeed, how necessary, MI5's surveillance of German and Austrian anti-Nazi refugees actually was. If the first two questions are historical, the third brings us back to the present: why has this particular surveillance operation, undoubtedly a costly one in terms of manpower and effort, not become part of the official history of MI5, failing to find a mention, for example, in Christopher Andrew's official centenary study, The Defence of the Realm?