Mercury Pictures Presents

In the 1930s and 1940s, Hollywood saw a large-scale influx of European refugees fleeing fascism. Indeed, as a site of mass political exile, California came to be known as “Sunny Siberia” (the title of the opening section of Marra’s novel). These artists and intellectuals played a significant role in shaping what is now known as Hollywood’s golden age. Germany, in particular, had been a leading light in cinema globally in the 1920s. The UFA (Universal Film AG) in Berlin, where Anna is initially employed, was the biggest and most innovative studio in Europe, bringing together legendary cinematic talents such as the directors Fritz Lang and Ernst Lubitsch and the producer Erich Pommer. From March 1933, the UFA was obliged to cancel most of its contracts with Jews. The rising tide of persecution at home meant that growing numbers of cinema professionals sought a new life in the US. However, the relationship of these individuals with their adopted country was far from straightforward.

During the 1930s, Hollywood produced many films that were openly critical of Germany and the rise of Nazism. These films alarmed American isolationists, who argued that Hollywood was scheming to propagate pro-interventionist propaganda. Launching the Senate Investigation Into Motion Picture War Propaganda in 1941, Senator Gerald Nye cited a list of the film directors and producers who he alleged were controlling and manipulating the industry. The fact that almost all of those listed were Jewish (like the Feldman brothers) prompted accusations of antisemitism.

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and the US’s subsequent entry into the war brought Nye’s inquisition to an abrupt close. However, the US’s entry into the war did not make life any easier for Hollywood’s immigrants. On the contrary, German, Italian, and Japanese immigrants suddenly found themselves being persecuted for the actions of the very regimes from which they had fled. The day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt suspended naturalization proceedings for German, Italian, and Japanese immigrants and introduced measures restricting their mobility. To prevent sabotage or espionage, they were also forbidden from owning items such as cameras and shortwave radios.

In the wake of Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066, 125,000 individuals of Japanese ancestry, two thirds of whom were American citizens, were relocated to internment camps, together with 1,600 Italians and 10,905 Germans and German Americans.

Hollywood’s contribution to the war effort consisted primarily of creating propaganda with which to raise morale and maintain public support for the war. There was a tendency to reinforce negative stereotypes about the Axis powers. This left actors and directors in the paradoxical situation of being obliged to attack and misrepresent their countries of origin to get ahead professionally.

The end of World War II and the gradual onset of the Cold War saw the dawn of a new set of problems for left-leaning European intellectuals in Hollywood, which are hinted at in Marra’s Epilogue. The House Un-American Activities Committee became a standing (permanent) committee in 1945 and began to focus its attention on perceived communist sympathizers. In a further ironic twist, this meant that many anti-fascist films from the war years were suddenly held under the microscope and investigated for socialist leanings.