Gangsters vs. Nazis: How Jewish Mobsters Battled Nazis in WW2 Era America

by Michael Benson

Now in paperback! The stunning true story of the rise of Nazism in America in the years leading to WWII--and the fearless Jewish gangsters and crime families who joined forces to fight back. With an intense cinematic style, acclaimed nonfiction crime author Michael Benson reveals the thrilling role of Jewish mobsters like Bugsy Siegel in stomping out the terrifying tide of Nazi sympathizers during the 1930s and 1940s.

As Adolph Hitler rose to power in 1930s Germany, a growing wave of fascism began to take root on American soil. Nazi activists started to gather in major American cities, and by 1933, there were more than one-hundred anti-Semitic groups operating openly in the United States. Few Americans dared to speak out or fight back--until an organized resistance of notorious Jewish mobsters (Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Siegel, Red Levine, and others) waged their own personal war against the Nazis in their midst, gangland-style . . .

Packed with surprising, little-known facts, graphic details, and unforgettable personalities, Gangsters vs. Nazis chronicles the mob's most ruthless tactics in taking down fascism--inspiring ordinary Americans to join them in their fight. The book culminates in one of the most infamous events of the pre-war era--the 1939 Nazi rally in Madison Square Garden--in which law-abiding citizens stood alongside hardened criminals to fight against the Nazis for the soul of America. This is the story of the mob that's rarely told--one of the most fascinating chapters in American history and American organized crime.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, True Crime, Jewish, Historical, Crime, World War II

320 pages, Paperback

First published April 26, 2022

Reviews

[Joyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

304 pages

5 stars

I’m almost embarrassed to say that I thought this book was a lot of fun. I was delighted to see the anti-semites get theirs.

Mr. Benson certainly did his research when writing this book. He gives fairly thorough biographical details on the key players, both gangster and Nazis. He pulls no punches. His opinion of the Nazis is very clear throughout the book. I ate it up.

I had no idea that the movement was so big and strong in the U.S. I was aware of figures like Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh. (One has to wonder if his and his wife’s baby was kidnapped because of the beliefs he held? Hmm…) but I had no idea about the rest. A Catholic priest? What was the world coming to?

I was pleased to see that almost without exception the Jewish mob (and others), stepped up to the plate. They were not to kill the Nazis, just beat them up a little. And that they did - thoroughly. I must admit that I have had a fascination with Charles “Lucky” Luciano for some time. I have no idea why. He was a bad man, so…why? While Lucky didn’t participate, his close friend and colleague, Meyer Lansky rounded up a few men. Quite a few from Murder, Inc. participated.

Well researched, brilliantly written and plotted. Mr. Benson does a remarkable job. This book is easy to read, does not have a lot of gore (despite the beating they gave the Nazis), and is very entertaining. I enjoyed it. It literally made my day.

I want to thank NetGalley and Kensington Books/Citadel for forwarding to me a copy of this eminently readable book for me to read, enjoy and review. The opinions expressed here are solely my own.

[Pooja Peravali · Rating 3 out of 5]

With Nazism on the rise in 1930s America, protected by free speech laws, a Jewish judge sets out to deal with them in the only way he knows how - by setting gangsters on them.

I'm not big on WW2 stories, mostly because I feel like the market is rather oversaturated. But rather perversely I'm still always on the lookout for unique stories in this setting, because those stories that are under-told are generally quite fascinating. Despite the title, though, this book is set not in wartime America but in the lead up to it. Still, it made for an entertaining listen.

I liked how vivid the writing was - the author is not at all afraid to take sides, lambasting the Nazis and lauding the gangsters. He tackles the stories told with an irrepressible glee. I also liked the cinematic excerpts and the vintage slang, though I know it won't suit everyone. But the book also opens the world of Depression era America up to the reader in a factual way, making you feel as though you are reading about the events in the newspaper.

However, I think the story was somewhat limited in scope - we might travel across the nation and visit gangsters on their home turfs, but ultimately there's not much variation in the actual beating up of the Nazis. The word count is instead puffed up with detailed discussions of the gangsters themselves, which sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. The trouble, I think, was that there are just so many people to keep straight that they become quite indistinct in one's mind.

My copy of this book was an audiobook, narrated by Gabriel Vaughan. I thought he did a good job of playing up the somewhat hammy nature of the book in a voice that reminded me of an old-fashioned broadcaster.

Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.

[Hedy Harper (Erin Hanton) · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was such a disappointment. I wanted so badly to like it. When it arrived, I was a bit wary of it, just because of the Author’s note at the beginning, and the haphazard “sources” section. But I was willing to give it a chance, because the subject matter was so interesting. Unfortunately, the writing style was amateurish, reading like a high school paper in places. I was torn about the tone, since I’m not one to say it’s wrong to say nasty things about Nazis, even when it’s irrelevant, but I had a hard time discerning the facts in this book because the author liberally sprinkled in opinions, suppositions, and flat-out made up things that he thought the people involved would have done. While I have no doubt that there’s plenty of truth in here, I have no idea what it is. When I read the author’s bio, I realized that the whole book, woody invented dialogue and all, reads like an episode of one of those true crime shows on ID that the author regularly appears on. It also is a bit confusing, as there is actually very little “gangsters vs.Nazis” action happening here, and it seemed to really get off track. Miss this one.

[Alan (the Lone Librarian rides again) Teder · Rating 2 out of 5]

Later on February 17, 2023 Reinstated the deleted review of The Minuteman from 2020 which can now be read here.

The Mob vs The Bund
Review of the Citadel Press Kindle ebook (April 26, 2022) released simultaneously with the Citadel Press hardcover edition

This read pretty much as an extended version of Greg Donahue's The Minuteman: The Forgotten Legacy of Nat Arno and the Fight Against Newark's Nazis (2020) which I listened to via an Audible Original a few years ago. I also now realize that the Goodreads NABers (Not A Bookers) have deleted my Minuteman review from 2020, but I'll reinstate it with my backup copy from LibraryThing.com

The basic plot is the American Nazis in the 1930s organized various rallies and the Jewish mobsters would organize their various tough guys (often boxers such as Nat Arno) to go and break up the rally and beat up the Nazi followers. Each chapter here basically repeats that scenario only with changes in cities, organizers and mobsters. It just gets a bit tiresome after several chapters. The writing is sensationalized with imagined 'conversations' between the mobsters, so it edges on fiction writing. Some of it sounds anachronistic as well, e.g. I don't think they used terms like "whacked" back in the 1930's.

The biggest revelation here was the story of Jacob Leon "Sparky" Rubenstein, who was one of the Chicago Jewish Mafia who participated in the 1930's Nazi beatings. His name goes by earlier in the book in a blur with the other mobster names. It is only towards the end of the book in the 'where are they now/what happened to' section that it is revealed that "Sparky" Rubenstein later changed his name to Jack Ruby, moved to Dallas, Texas to continue his crime career and then went on to publicly assassinate Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin of President Kennedy, shortly after the latter was arrested in 1963.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

The premise of this book was so intriguing to me that I had to read it. I was already familiar with some of the history of American fascism in the years preceding World War II, but the idea that gangsters took a leading role in opposing the American Nazis was new to me. Benson acknowledges, of course, that the predominant image of Jews versus Nazis comes from the horrors of the Holocaust, but he offers this book as an “additional volume to the Jews versus Nazis story”—one in which the Jews largely got the upper hand.

On the whole, I’m glad I read the book, but I can’t recommend it as enthusiastically as I’d like to. Much of what Benson has written was new to me and quite interesting. He profiles many Jewish (and some non-Jewish) gangsters and describes numerous occasions on which they disrupted Nazi rallies in cities from coast to coast. He also discusses the Nazi youth camps in the United States, which I was unfamiliar with.

According to Benson, it was New York magistrate judge Nathan Perlman who instigated the gangsters’ battle against the Nazis. Perlman asked mobster Meyer Lansky to recruit his gangland cronies to fight the Nazis. Perlman stipulated that they could use their fists but not guns or other lethal weapons.

Benson has organized most of the book geographically, with sections devoted to major cities and regions of the country. Maybe because I’m an east-coast guy, I found the sections that focused on New York City and Newark, New Jersey, to be the most interesting, along with the section on Chicago. In my opinion, as his story moved to other locations, Benson’s introduction of new gangsters and the descriptions of their battles with the Nazis started to become repetitive. A more chronological approach to the story would have made it more coherent for me.

One aspect of the book that began to irritate me the more I read was the casual and often flippant tone in which it’s written. Sometimes it’s amusing, as in Benson’s description of a gangster called Ice Pick Willie looking like “a cross between Edward G. Robinson and Larry Fine, with emphasis on the Stooge.” But at other times, it is distracting, and at least for me, it detracts from the seriousness of the subject. When the managers of various meeting halls claimed they didn’t know the nature of the Nazi meetings, Benson says “they were shocked, shocked to learn that pro-fascist subjects were being discussed.” When anti-semitic radio priest Father Charles Coughlin convinces the FBI that he wasn’t responsible for the activities of his Christian Front organization, Benson says “his ass was saved.” Likewise, HUAC is described as “hounding [the] collective ass” of William Dudley Pelley’s Silver Shirts organization. These aren’t the gangsters or other figures in the book speaking. It’s the author’s voice.

In general, I’m not opposed to books on historical subjects being enlivened by bits of invented dialog and action, so long as they are consistent with the facts as they are known. In an author’s note at the beginning of the book, Benson acknowledges that he going to do this and is also going to adjust the chronology. As a frequent contributor to true-crime reality TV shows, maybe this is just his style. But I think he goes too far on both counts.

I’m giving Gangsters vs Nazis 3 stars, which I see as a compromise between the historical and informational value of the book (4 stars) and the way it’s written (2 stars).

[Kelly {SpaceOnTheBookcase] · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won a copy of this book but my review is my own personal opinion.

I am a WWII era fanatic dating back to my early teens. I wish this book existed when I was a teen because it would have fueled my desire to learn more. Admittedly, I took a lot of happiness is reading how Nazi's and Nazi sympathizers were handed their butts throughout the country. I feel like, given the current political climate in the United States, we are seeing this more and more with the rise of the right-wind extremism which made this book feel very relevant.

This book is not a fast read. It is heavy in both characters, dates and information. I wouldn't call it slow per say, but you do need to be paying attention to the details.

Overall I absolutely loved this book.

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh wow! What a thrilling audio adventure! Such interesting history and highly recommend the audiobook version, as the narrator is very animated and keeps your attention.

[David Wineberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the 1960s there was a sitcom called Hogan's Heroes, about the rollicking antics of allied prisoners in a German prisoner of war camp. No one ever escaped because they were having too good a time outwitting the dimwitted Germans. Now, Michael Benson has written Gangsters vs Nazis, the true story of American Jewish mobsters who delighted in beating up Nazis, disrupting their meetings, and unwittingly making those beatings safe for all Americans to join in. In just one year, 1938, they made it impossible to carry on and Nazism's attempt to convert Americans faded to nothing.

The book is a remarkably lighthearted, fast paced and a delight to read. It takes almost nothing seriously, including itself. It is full of gangster slang like slammer, long naps and popped, that would do justice to a George Raft or Humphrey Bogart gangster film. The seemingly endless list of characters (it's debatable to call them heroes) are all profiled in fascinating depth. It starts with their colorful nicknames, like Bugsy Siegel and Sparky Rubenstein, Tic Toc Tannenbaum, Ice Pick Willie Alderman, Longie Zillman and Blue Jaw Magoon. They ran a parallel mafia to the Italians and Sicilians, just as tough, just as vicious, just as colorful, just as skilled and just as successful. In fact, when needed, they worked together. It was respect, not competition.

Most were the sons of eastern European immigrants, often arriving in America as infants. They came in all shapes and sizes, but they were all tough survivors. Many became boxers, and indeed are in the boxing hall of fame. They tended to drift out of school and into the streets. They learned to hustle, eventually finding their way to a gym where their survival skills got enhanced, refined and disciplined. Their rap sheets could begin as early as age nine, for accepting and passing packages of illegal hooch to a customer for a dollar delivery fee.

In 1933, Hitler announced his plans for the USA: "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."

German organizations like the Bund, the Silver Shirts and camps for children started appearing all over the country. They celebrated Hitler, hated Jews and communists, and indoctrinated white Christians to Nazism. That they publicly denied this was their intention and got away with it is pathetic. That America offered them the opportunity to do so was extremely frustrating, especially to Jews. Krystallnacht took place in 1938, demonstrating to the whole world what Nazism was really all about.

Then one day, on his own initiative, a judge by the name of Nathan Perlman in New York , decided to do something about it. He called up the biggest Jewish gangster in town, Meyer Lansky, and asked him if he would like to bang some Nazi heads. Lansky positively jumped at the offer. The judge promised to try to protect any of the gangsters who might be arrested, but they were otherwise free to beat up any and all Nazis. There was one caveat - no killing. They could beat them up, but they couldn't kill them. This was initially a big disappointment everywhere it was proposed, but the boys got over it. After all, they weren't used used to beating people; they were all used to outright killing. In New York, they were known as Murder, Inc., if that helps.

So Lansky took his men to a gym, where they learned to beat people up, use their hands, have plans and tactics ready, and use brass knuckles, baseball bats and sawed off pool cues, along with lead pipes.

They infiltrated the Bund and found out where all the meetings would take place. They showed up, sat in the back, and when the speeches turned to Jews, they let loose. Benson describes the beatings like a Three Stooges comedy. People go flying, crumple, accordion, crash and moan. Blood everywhere. General panic and chaos.

This process got repeated all over the country. Every chapter of the book seems to have Perlman making a call to the lead Jewish gangster in town, followed by an enthusiastic response, training and severe beatings. The places range from Manhattan and Brooklyn to various venues in upstate New York, all over New Jersey, Minnesota, Chicago, and eventually California. It will be amazing for most readers to learn of the large Jewish populations of places like Newark, and how large, active and influential the Jewish gangsters were. And Minnesota? Yes, even Minnesota.

The Bund couldn't understand how the Jews always crashed their secret meetings. And prevented them from ever completing one. But soon they weren't even secret, and spectators started showing up. Then ordinary citizens started to join in. Police were torn between defending the Nazis and beating them themselves. So many of the cops had been bought off by the gangsters, they often did nothing to interfere.

The German Americans were always surprised. They were also usually well lubricated, making them worthless fighters. And they were of extremely low quality people, hardly magnificent specimens of the Aryan super race. In the ensuing years, a number of them were nailed for pedophilia, exposing themselves in public, hate crimes, rape, tax evasion and embezzlement. These were Hitler's finest hope for the future.

Their attendance became weaker and weaker as their meeting got reputations for severe thrashings. And when hauled into court, it was the Germans who got fined, while the gangsters went free.

The gangsters were proud of their work. They were doing their patriotic duty, something actually worthwhile, and not for the money. Some called themselves the Minutemen after the Revolutionary War heroes. Sometimes they donned American Legion caps that got strategically left behind. The lead gangsters kept their word to get them out of jail fast, pay for hospitalization and also give them free reign. The boys got creative, casing the meeting places, throwing stink bombs to drive everyone outside into their clutches, chasing away their buses so they had nowhere to run to, or rushing the front door and beating everyone right in the lobby.

Benson is great on color. He describes every venue, from its construction and layout to its location and even what is on that site today. The characters are all fabulously rich in color, in both their biographies and their actions. It all makes for a fast, entertaining read.

It was a very different era. Physical violence was tolerated to an unthinkable extent. It was permissible at work, in school, at home and on the street. Gangsters were an accepted factor of life. They were even important, supporting charities, making donations and sending gifts as they saw fit. To have enlisted them nationwide for a political cause is not just unprecedented and unique, it is astonishing. That a magistrate was the mastermind behind it all is beyond.

The epilogue follows all the characters to the ends of their lives. A large percentage of them seem to have ended up in electric chairs. Some enlisted and became war heroes. A number of them moved to Las Vegas, where they built, owned and operated the casino industry, but also continued their murderous ways. Some were the victims of their own kind, found in shallow graves here and there, or like Lansky, blasted to pieces while reading the paper on a couch.

A couple of them made other news. Boxer Sparky Rubenstein drifted, eventually ending up in Dallas, where he applied his long experience to paying off cops, lawyers and judges, so he could have unquestioned, easy access to all kinds of places. He needed a new identity, and changed his name to Jack Ruby. That's how he was able to shoot Lee Harvey Oswald right in front of everyone, rousing no suspicion whatsoever. He was still thinking of himself as a great patriot.

The adult daughter of Minnesota's Davey The Jew Berman, was murdered in her own home, seemingly by Robert Durst (one of several he was suspected of), who died before it could be proven in court.

This is a book for everyone, but particularly for anyone who wouldn't read history because it is dull and dry. Prepare to be taken on an extraordinary journey.

David Wineberg



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[Maine Colonial · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a free advance review copy from the publisher, via Netgalley.

This book describes the rise in racist, anti-semitic fascist movements in the US before this country entered World War II. If you are familiar with the history of the period, you already know that there were many such movements, with one of the biggest and loudest being the German-American Bund. But there were plenty of other Hitler fans in the US, including such well-known figures as Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh and the popular—but poisonous—radio personality Father Coughlin.

Less well-known is that members of the Jewish mob, seeing what was going on in Europe and what these movements might do if they gained power in the US, decided to make life difficult for them—urged on, according to Benson, by a New York judge and a prominent rabbi. Benson describes the gangsters busting up rallies and meetings in New York, Chicago, New Jersey, Minneapolis, Cleveland, Buffalo, Syracuse, Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle.

[Note: Los Angeles was a particular focus for the struggle between Nazis and anti-Nazis because it was the home of the film industry and Nazi Germany had great respect for the power of mass media in propaganda. The struggle dynamic among Nazis, anti-Nazis and the film industry in Los Angeles had relatively little to do with gangsters, so this book doesn’t include a lot of detail about LA. But it’s a fascinating story, complicated by Hollywood’s desire to continue to release movies in Germany during the Nazi era (but before war was declared between the US and the Axis powers) and if you want to read about it, there are several books you should check out, including Steven J. Ross’s [book:Hitler in Los Angeles: How Jews Foiled Nazi Plots Against Hollywood and America|33590281] (2017), Thomas Doherty’s Hollywood and Hitler, 1933-1939 (2015), and Ben Urwand’s The Collaboration: Hollywood's Pact with Hitler (2015).]

Though this book is non-fiction, it tells its story in a sort of rock ‘em, sock ‘em comic-book style. Or maybe look at this as a non-fiction book version of Quentin Tarantino’s wildly colorful alternate-history movie fantasy, Inglourious Basterds [sic], in which a gang of mostly Jewish soldiers and Nazis resisters plot to assassinate a whole swath of Nazi leadership.

However you look at it, a key point is that this is not an academic history, with restrained, formal language and copious footnotes and citations. It doesn’t assume its readers know anything about the topic, so there is a lot of background exposition. It also doesn’t engage in any both-sides stuff. Benson’s clear point of view is that the American Nazi supporters were (and are) knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing master-race wannabes, and the gangsters were doing the right thing in beating them up—even if the rest of the time the gangsters were outlaws and often sadistic killers.

Where it gets off track for me is Benson’s lengthy bios of the gangsters. It’s colorful up to a point, but by the time you get to Chicago, which is fairly early in the story, it’s often more a mini-history of Jewish gangs than it is about their anti-Nazi activities. It gets to be a bit of a slog and I had to wonder who Benson thought he was writing for. It’s quite an interesting story that could use editorial help to tighten up and clarify the narrative.

[J.M. Hushour · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I want you should assemble an anti-Nazi army."

Jewish toughs, gangsters, and boxers beating the living shit out of Nazis in late 30s Jersey? Why isn't this a goddamn HBO miniseries yet?
Truly, this is a superb book on a little slice of American anti-fascist awesomeness. I mean, where else in the world could a NY judge like Nathan Perelman call up a gangster like Meyer Lansky and let 'em know he has a little "Nazi problem". In New York, New Jersey, LA, Chicago, and Minnesota, Jews stood up for themselves when no one else would and crashed American Nazi rallies and kicked the fuck out of those assholes. I can't recommend this one enough.
I am actually proud to be an American when I read shit like this!

[Will · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gangsters vs. Nazis: How Jewish Mobsters Battled Nazis in Wartime America by Michael Benson. 2022.

I was hoping for more of a factual/historical account. This read like a fictionalized dramatization. I know some of these events actually took place, and I was interested in learning more about them, but this wasn't really the source for that for me. It felt more like a screenplay for a streaming series. I'm not familiar with the author, so perhaps this is just his style and I went in with the wrong expectations. Nevertheless, it affected how I received the writing. To be honest, I had a hard time finishing it because of that.

[Lindsay Nixon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book *substantially* altered my view on mobsters/the mafia, and shifted my (perhaps rosy glasses/hollywood romanticized assumption) about the political climate/social view surroundingWWII and the Nazis in America (particularly in Brooklyn, NYC and LA). I cannot believe how strong a Nazi presence was in America in several cities (including the midwest!).

Perhaps most importantly, this book reminded me that monsters are not always monsters. That is, people who do "bad acts" are not always bad eggs. This isn't to excuse or justify the crimes they may commit, but rather to remember humans are complex and even "bad" people are not bad all the time.

Overall, I found the book and subject matter fascinating and the author did a great job weaving facts with storyline narrative to make it more relatable, interesting, and not too academic or dry. I thought it was well-organized as well. My only 'complaint' is there are so many characters that I sometimes had difficulty following or remembering who someone is. The author did a good job of trying to jog my memory with context sometimes, but I still struggled. I'd love to see this made into a documentary-series. I think faces to go with the names would help.

As a Jewish person, I also want to thank the author immensely for detailing a portion of our history.

Thank you netgalley for my ARC. I look forward to another listen when the book comes out.

[Judie · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 1938, a New York City judge, a rabbi, and a Jewish gangster walked into a room. This is not the beginning of a joke but is a true story.
The meeting, originated by New York Judge Nathan D. Perlman, was to have a major effect on the growth of the German Bund, the primary Nazi recruiting organization in the United States. The others in attendance were Rabbi Stephen Wise, a prominent leader with a national reputation, and Meyer Lansky, an immigrant and leader of Murder, Inc.
In 1882, there were about 250,000 Jews in the United States. By 1924, there were four million. Most of them were immigrants who fled eastern Europe better lives and escape persecution and discrimination But for many, their dreams did not come true. Many of their children grew up as rebels after they saw the way Jews were treated and did not have the same freedoms and benefits as did Christian Americans. Often beaten by neighborhood bullies, they decided to fight back to show that Jews could not only protect themselves but also inflict damage on those bullies.
It the 1930s, Hitler was gaining power in Europe and wanted more support in the US. . There were more than 100 well-known anti-Semitic groups in the US. In the 1930s, a report in Fortune magazine showed about 10% of Americans wanted all Jews to be deported. Among Hitler’s supporters here were Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh.
While the Bund attracted only 0.2 percent of American Germans, they were fierce. The Jews were frightened of the growing number of fascist rallies which resulted in attacks.
In 1938, Perlman came up with a plan to stop the Bund. Using Jewish gangsters was an imaginative way to stop them since the the gangsters were already attacking people and didn’t care about the law. Rabbi Wise had only one demand: No one was to be killed. They offered to pay the men, noting that they were professionals, but Lansky refused. He knew what was happening to Jews in Europe and considered them his brothers. The judge said they would provide legal assistance when necessary.
GANGSTERS VS NAZIS covers activities in New York, Illinois, New Jersey, states along the Great Lakes, Nevada, and the West Coast. Sometimes the police departments and courts cooperated, sometimes they didn’t.
Newspaper coverage was also important. One of the reporters on the story was a young Eric Sevareid in Minnesota.
The epilogue closes the book with follow-up information about what happened to the people involved. Many of them served honorably in the US Military during WWII.
Benson’s writing is in an easy-to-read, punchy journalist style: short chapters with a coating of major details. It tells a story I had never heard before and found very interesting.

[Harold · Rating 2 out of 5]

This sounds like an interesting book, and indeed it starts out that way. A prominent NY Magistrate and a leading rabbi, watching the rise of naziism in America before we joined WWII, decide to break up Nazi rallies, and call in the Jewish mobsters, from Meyer Lansky to Bugsy Siegel to a host of other lesser known characters (including Jack Ruby) to perform the task.

Unfortunately after the strong opening the book is taken up with who the crew of lesser known mobsters in a handful of American cities from NY to LA, with several stops in between, and in each case culminating with a Nazi rally at which event the gangsters come in with light weapons (no one killed please) and beat the tipsy nazis with brass knuckles, baseball bats, or just their fists, while in general the police stood by and watched.

The author is clear at the beginning of the book to point out that the gangsters are the good guys and the nazis are scum. I think he senses, probably correctly, that without proper guidance one might be confused.

The book is written in the style of a cheap detective novel although it has been a long time since I read one, so perhaps I do a disservice to cheap detective novels.

A much better book covering some of the same territory (although less about gangsters) is Hitler in Los Angeles: How the Jews Foiled Plots Against Hollywood and America by Steven Ross.

[Mary Virginia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yay - the gangsters are the heros! This is a part of history that I know very little about so I really enjoyed learning something new. The writing was a little too familiar and conversational which was a distraction - I kept thinking the author was just making things up here and there. Still, it was a fascinating read and I think it’s definitely worthwhile.

[Michael Feuerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good book that told an interesting story. It details how Jewish mobsters fought Nazis and Nazi sympathizer prior to America entering World War II. The style is a little different, with the author using some gangster style slang. Overall, a very enlightening book.

[Michael Burnam-Fink · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's 1938 and fascism is on the march. In Europe, Hitler is poised to take Poland and France, launching the Second World War. In America, a variety of fifth columnist groups think that this is a swell idea, and America should let it happen, and then get rid of their own Jews. The justice system, limited by the First Amendment and widespread antisemitism, isn't going to do much. But one man has an idea. Judge Nathan Perlman makes a call to Meyer Lansky, offering a deal. Lansky and his buddies get to bust heads, Perlman will handle the legal issues as long as no one gets killed.

Welcome to Anti-Fascist Action, gangland style.


Always Be Punching Nazis.
The only linkable gif I can find has the Nazi exploding sonic style

Gangsters vs Nazis is a pulpy as hell take on true events. Meyer Lansky, one of the key figures in American organized crime, gathered up his favorite enforcers from Murder Inc and started hitting meetings of the German-American Bund. Lesser Jewish gangsters did much the same in Chicago, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Newark, and Los Angeles. Though the Nazis often had the numbers, their cadres of weekend warriors were no match for the hardened thugs, goons, and boxers that the gangsters could call upon. In a few years, it became clear that being an American Nazi was a painful business, and the dreaded fifth column came to nothing after Pearl Harbor.

The history is fascinating enough, and this book shines in cameo portraits of its various figures. But Benson badly over-eggs his story, inventing camera movements and treating this like a screenplay rather than a book. And while Nazis badly need a fist to the face, the gangsters are portrayed uncritically as heroes, when they were also murderers and thugs.

If I were to read one book on the subject, it'd be Hitler in Los Angeles, which is a more interesting take, though one with less punching.

[EVAN · Rating 2 out of 5]

""Gangsters vs Nazis" is a class in how to translate an interesting topic into an unreadable sludge, all through the magic of overwrought prose.

The book is about how Jewish gangsters were used to break up Nazi-sympathizer rallies across the country in the late 1930s, a topic covered by various other books. That's not the issue, however. Benson made a choice to write in what I assumed was supposed to be the vernacular of the period, which means readers get treated to such gems as someone being given "a deli-style knuckle sandwich;" Longie Zwillman and Jean Harlow "scorching sheets across the Third Ward," and Irving Thalberg's "perforated pump" (his heart). Somewhere, Walter Winchell grimaces.

In honor of one-half of the subjects of the book, if it were only strained metaphors, dayenu. It isn't. We're also treated to what I assume is fictional dialogue between Judge Perlman and Meyer Lansky, "these fucking Nazis are becoming bolder with their shenanigans," and so many other examples. It reads like a play written on deadline by two eighth graders. To quote "Urinetown," "you're too young to understand this, but too much exposition can ruin a story.."

The author also conveniently ignores the fact that, at the same time that they were engaging Lansky, et al to do their dirty work, they were denouncing them from the bimah. I'll chalk that up to authorial prerogative.

This is a topic that has been better covered elsewhere - "Tough Jews" and "Hitler in Los Angeles,"'to name two.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good Bad Guys Whipping Really Bad Guys

Michael Benson's book brings light to to a time in U.S. history when Germany was trying to sway American opinion prior to World War II. He writes about the efforts of Judge Nathan Perlman in bringing together Jewish gangsters to harass and physically attack German Bund members who were staging rallies to support Hitler and spread anti-Semitic rhetoric. Benson's book is well researched and an insightful and engaging read.

[Genie · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s a bit shocking just how prominent Nazis were in the US prior to Pearl Harbor. And the Jewish community fighting back against them is also an unreported story. But this book was incredibly repetitive and the author’s narrative filled with jargon and what I guess he that were harasses used in the streets at the time before the war. To me, this made the book almost unreadable. It did not give credit to the story.

[boxer_dogs_dance · Rating 5 out of 5]

This little known history of the Jewish mob in the 1930s is fascinating. TLDR, a judge recruited gangsters to organize resistance to the Bund and American Nazis at meetings and rallies across the country. The book tells the story and then describes the post war career of the mobsters.

[Travis Stroup · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting and informative. I knew extremely little about the fight between Jewish Mobsters and Nazis before the start of WW2. Good story telling and facts make it a good read, especially if you like history.

[Lauren Stoolfire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having recently watched Nazi Town, U.S.A. on PBS this is a must read.

[Jamie Feuerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25 stars

A really cool read. I loved learning about this piece of Jewish-American history. The way the book is narrated is also funny and kind of in 1930s gangster-speak which was enjoyable. Sometimes repetitive but that’s kind of the nature of the history here. My main complaint is that I wish the epilogue (specifically the parts which tell about what happened to each other the main gangsters mentioned) had been told as the stories of the gangs in each location were told because by the end I’d kind of forgotten who each person was. Would definitely recommend this book!

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

First, thank you to Michael Benson and Citadel Press for providing me a copy of this book to review.

Gangsters vs. Nazis: How Jewish Mobsters Battled Nazis in Wartime America was fascinating read about a topic I knew little about in US History. Mr. Benson is an excellent writer who knows how to captivate the reader and hold their attention. It's an easy to read page turner that was both entertaining and informative.

The cast of characters was eclectic. I knew something about Mayer Lansky, but the book did a great job highlighting his role organizing the mobsters who fought back against the Nazis. I was also interested to learn about Jacob 'Sparky' Rubenstein's role as a Nazi fighter. You may know him from his better known alias as Jack Ruby. He killed President John F. Kennedy's assasin, Lee Harvey Oswald, in November of 1963.

I was impressed with the moral courage and restraint shown by Judge Perlman and Rabbi Stephen Wise. They were the originators who decided to fight the Nazis. Considering what the Nazis were doing to Jews in Europe, they recruited gangsters with the expressed understanding that they would not kill or maim anyone. I thought to myself, could I have done this if in the same position? Would I want to inflict the same level of pain on people that would relish my death? They are interesting questions to think about.

The fascists were not the brightest people. They repeatedly got beaten up at an event, schedule another rally and repeat the cycle. They never seemed to have gotten the idea to protect themselves. I kept waiting for a full on street fight to happened, but they were always one sided.

My feedback for this book is limited. I would have loved to have seen photos of the gangsters and Nazis (Kuhn, Pelley, etc.) to get an idea of what they looked like and also some of the locations where events happened too. I found one error that should be corrected. On page 230, it mentions Arminius, a Germanic chief, that fought the Romans. It cites the event as occuring in the 9th century. The empire did not exist in the west at that time. These events happened in the first century.

[Zeb Kantrowitz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is as much fun as the title implies. During the middle 1930s, a lot of the gangs that ran numbers, alcohol and gambling were headed by Jews. Bugsy Siegal and Myer Lansky are the two who come to mind. These are some of the Jews who made up the tough Jews who included many boxers and athletes. These guys were no pushovers and they proved it to everybody.

But this was also the times of Henry Ford and his anti-semetic newspaper, Father Coughlin and his radio broadcasts, and the Nazi Bund on Long Island. A Rabbi in New York thought it was a good time to show these wanna-be Nazis that they couldn't just go around bad-mouthing Jews. This was America, not Germany.

So many of the Jewish hoods formed groups who would go in an break-up meetings and recruitment by these groups (The Silver Shirts). They were very successful to the point that in some cities they were never heard from again. It's a fun story.

[Steve Essick · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title says it all : Gangsters Vs. Nazis: How Jewish Mobsters Battled Nazis In Wartime America. Michael Benson’s new account of festering anti-Semitism in America in the years leading up to our entry into World War 2 is an engrossing reminder of what happens when hate takes over the political discourse. In the late 30’s a sizable amount Americans were being swayed by Nazi Propaganda that was spread in rallies throughout the country. These “True Americans” used their first amendment rights to gather and therefore the government had their hands tied in stopping them legally. Enter the gangsters, men use to breaking the law to meet their objectives, which in this case was stopping these anti-Semitic gatherings. Gangsters Vs. Nazis is a very well written and researched chronicle of this dubious chapter of American History that is both eye opening and frightening making it not to be missed. Five Stars.

[Tim Schneider · Rating 4 out of 5]

True crime writer Michael Benson goes on a tangent from his usual work to bring us a look at efforts to battle the Bunds and other Fascistic elements in the U.S. in during the rise and ascendency the Nazi regime in Germany. There was a sizable (but not overly large) and very vocal Fascist movement in the U.S. throughout the 30s, really growing with the Depression. Protected by U.S. free speech laws and bolstered by prominent celebrities like Charles Lindbergh, Father Coughlin and Henry Ford, who while not necessarily Bund or Silver Legion members, gave public voice to the same vile ideologies, there was ample cover for Fascist groups to grow and recruit disaffected Americans. One of the more unusual and effective methods of battling the groups was to recruit members of the Jewish Mob across the U.S. to arm themselves with baseball bats, pool cues and brass knuckles and break up Bundist group's rallies, meetings and parades.

Bensen give us snapshots of these activities across the U.S., including activities in New York City, Newark, Chicago, Minneapolis, Cleveland and Los Angeles. He also gives us small glimpses in the the histories of prominent members of both sides. And there are a number of noteworthy individuals involved. Meyer Lansky. Mickey Cohen. Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel. A number of members of Murder, Inc. And not all of them were mobsters. A lot of Jewish boxers were involved, including, most prominently Barney Ross, who at one point held the Lightweight, Light Welterweight and Welterweight boxing titles (not simultaneously).

The overarching narrative is probably a bit lacking. And Benson is an adequate, but far from great writer. But there is enough vicarious joy and thrills from reading about Nazi's getting their heads busted open by Jewish-Americans that the shortcomings of the book can be overlooked. I've long said that Nazi's are just begging to be punched in the throat. It's great to read about a time when American Nazis got baseball bats upside the head, brass knuckles to the jaw and pole cues to the gut. It's just too bad it didn't happen to Lindbergh, Ford or Coughlin.

To quote New York State Justice Nathan Perlman, who was instrumental in getting Lansky and company involved, "Broken bones, I would think, are to be encouraged. They should know that being a Nazi is dangerous."

[Linda · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm sorry. I really tried to finish this book because I won it in a giveaway and felt a responsibility to offer the publisher a review as thanks but I cannot recommend it and I refuse to spend more time trying.
Basically, the title and subtitle tell the entire story. Respectable Jewish Americans recruited their less respectable coreligionists to break up Bund meetings before the United States entered WWII.
The author had a good idea and I expected his book to be interesting and engrossing in the same way that Defiance: the story of the Bieleski brothers, or the fictional How To Find Your Way in the Dark or even Tarentino's INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS was, but it wasn't.
Nonfiction engages me only if there are central characters to whom I can relate. Gangsters vs Nazis is an overly episodic collection of brief sketches of mostly unrelated criminals, boxers, a judge, a journalist, an illiterate brothel-keeper, and others, recounted in a slangy style that leaned heavily on jargon and cliches. (Without a glossary I had to look up boxing terms like "tomato can" on Google.) After awhile I got really tired of reading what seemed to be basically the same story over and over with different names and locations. Perhaps the author didn't include an index because this serious flaw would have then been immediately apparent to the prospective reader.
I wish the book had focused more on unique individuals like Herb Brin or even the infamous Father Coughlin and gave fewer details about boxing and beating and odd little sections designed to read like a film script ("And, ACTION!")
I might have kept going but then on page 133 I read an unpleasant little vignette about a minor gangster who claimed to have fought the Nazis but was actually too young to have participated. Why was this person even mentioned and in such revolting detail? That did it for me. Life is too short.
With better editing this could have been a fascinating article, but there's not enough presented here in a style to make an entire book worth reading.
Again, I appreciate the opportunity to explore a new book, but I won't lie about literary or journalistic quality. I will pass this one on, unfinished, to VVA donations.

[Dale · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Review of the Audiobook

Highly Recommended

Published in 2022 by Tantor Audio.
Read by Gabriel Vaughan.
Duration: 8 hours, 53 minutes.
Unabridged.

In the United States in the 1930's there was a small, loud, enthusiastic, and growing group of Americans that were great fans of Hitler and the Nazi party. They were largely ethnic Germans and formed organizations that sported Nazi symbols and mimicked the big rallies that Hitler had in Germany. They also mimicked the overt antisemitic speech exhibited by the Nazis. The most successful of these was the German American Bund (German American Federation).

There were a lot of small groups but there were two larger organizations with a different take than the Bund. The Silver Legion of America (Silver Shirts) had a spiritualist take on hate. Father Coughlin was a literal Catholic priest who brought a "Catholic" view on antisemitic hate and anti-interventionism from Detroit. He had a massive radio audience that was so enthusiastic that his church superiors were afraid to muzzle him.

Officially, Nazi Germany did not support these groups, but there were plenty of unofficial connections.

The national government could officially do nothing to stop them quickly (although the age-old tactic of looking for things like tax violations did work to slow some of them down over time.)

There was also very little that local governments could do to stop these meetings. Some localities, like New York City, outlawed wearing some of their Nazi-style outfits (dubious legality). Others just buckled down and over-scrutinized all of their rental applications for meeting halls, applications for parades, and so on. If there was a misspelling, or any similar type of mistake it was denied.

But, that kind of thing only lasts so long. Eventually these American Nazis learned to...

Read more by clicking on this link. The original review has lots of linked information.
https://dwdsreviews.blogspot.com/2022...