Book Review: Gangsters Vs. Nazis

Michael Benson, Gangsters Vs. Nazis: How Jewish Mobsters Battled Nazis in Wartime America. New York: Kensington Publishing, 2022. ISBN: 9780806541792.

 

Genre: U.S. history, mobsters

Subgenre: Jewish history in the United States

Format: print galley

Source: Review copy provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review 

 

This book is a collection of true stories about Jewish gangsters fighting against Nazis and Nazi sympathizers on U.S. soil. While bigotry and antisemitism, along with racism, have always been problems in the United States, prior to World War II, antisemites and a significant segment of German Americans were emboldened by Hitler's rise in Europe. These American Nazis hoped to bring Hitler's vision to the United States and overthrow American democracy. They did not count on the patriotism of Jewish American gangsters. When many Americans were either indifferent or conveniently ignorant, Jewish gangsters organized and fought these Nazi groups. The author collects their stories in this book. 

 

I knew from other readings about Lucky Luciano helping the U.S war effort. Before that, the German American Bund, the Silver Shirts, and other fascist bigoted groups were actively trying to take over the United States. Jews were in their sights, and soon members of Jewish communities called on their local Jewish gangsters to help. The gangsters were not only patriotic; they were glad to help and prove that Jews would not go down quietly. 

I mentioned this is a collection of stories because it was a nationwide struggle. From the East Coast to the Midwest to the West Coast, if American Nazis tried to have their meetings, Jewish gangsters were there to bust them up. Some gangsters were better financed; some had cops in their pockets, but some cops also tried to protect the Nazis, or rather their freedom of assembly rights that those Nazis were weaponizing (not unlike certain right wing party weaponizing the First Amendment in the present time, but I digress). The gangsters also often had discreet support from local politicians and community members. The fight against Nazism in the United States took various forms, and the author does try to convey as many stories as he can. 

The book is arranged in seven parts with 29 chapters. The chapters vary in length, but many are pretty short at a few pages. This allows for swift reading. In addition, the book has a preface, an introduction, and an epilogue. The book also includes a list of sources including other books, newspapers and periodicals, and websites. As you read you can tell the book is well researched. The author often uses periodicals from the time as primary sources to help tell the stories. 

The narrative is pretty good. There can be a slow moment here or there, but a lot of the story move at a good pace. Much of the story is riots and other meeting disruptions, so some events may blue a bit, i.e. seems like the same kind of event repeats in different places. An interesting element in the book are the stories of the various gangsters. 

This is a book about a part of U.S. history that few people may know about. Yes, the U.S. had a Nazi past (you could argue it still does have a Nazi and fascist present), which many in the U.S. often ignore. Thus this is a must read. It is a book that reveals a part of U.S. history mostly forgotten until now. This is the kind of book that in the right hands could make a good documentary or television series. The author's writing is very visual. I could see this book as material for a series in one of the streaming services. 

This is a book I recommend for public libraries. Readers who enjoy books on U.S. history and/or crime history, especially mobster stories, will likely enjoy this book. I'd consider it optional for academic libraries unless they have strong 20th century U.S. history holdings. 

Overall, I really liked this one, and it is one I would recommend for others to read. 

4 out of 5 stars. 

* * * * * 

Additional reading notes: 

 

A nice touch throughout the books are the epigraphs the author uses, for example: 

 

"It is important to non-Jews as well as to Jews. Any nation which permits a minority to live in fear of persecution is a nation which invites disaster." -- Professor L.B. Namier (qtd. in 5). 

 

Professor Namier's quote is still very relevant and applicable today. 

 

 

Not all German Americans were Nazis, but the ones that were Nazis were very dangerous: 

 

"There were upward of twelve million Germans in the United States during the Depression, and Bund membership represented 0.4 percent of that number, one in five hundred. But the believers, that 0.2 percent, were zealous and dangerous. By 1933, there were more than one hundred anti-Semitic groups in the U.S., functioning openly and in evangelical mode" (19). 

 

 

Much like today, fascists in the U.S. had supporters back then too: 

 

"The message also resonated with the Christian Right groups like Defenders of the Christian Faith, which was already suspicious of anyone belonging to a non-Jesus religion, and to capitalists who liked the idea that no one hated communism more than a fascist" (19). 

 

 

On the U.S. influencing the Nazis including having influence on Hitler: 

 

"Much was written about Germany's influence on German Americans, much less so about America's influence on Hitler and the policies of the Nazi Party. Hitler, it seemed, was a student of U.S. history, and he took note when reading about the New World and its centuries of race slavery" (31). 

 

 

Regarding the above, Benson lists two relevant books in his list of sources: 

 

• Hart, Bradley W., Hitler's American Friends: the Third Reich's Supporters in the United States. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2018. 
• Whitman, James Q. Hitler's American Model. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2018.
   

The next epigraph, which opens Part 5 of the book, if you modify it slightly, it sounds just like today's U.S. Republican Party and U.S. theocrats: 

"We will undermine the morale of the people of America. Once there is confusion and after we have succeeded in undermining the faith of the American people in their own government, a new group will take over; this will be the German-American group, and we will help them assume power." --Adolph Hitler, 1933. 

This quote from Minneapolis Municipal Judge William C. Larson shows how to handle hate speech, and no, not as deserving freedom of speech but rather as the equivalent to causing/provoking a riot: 

"There can be no more potent breeder of public disorder, than a deliberate stirring up of class against class, and race against race. This  undermines the patriotic unity of our nation, and is in direct opposition to that tolerance of race and religion which our constitution provides for, and which is a distinguishing feature of the fundamental law of our land, one of its great cornerstones essential to the peace and safety of any community" (190-191).