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Rachel Maddow Presents Ultra
From the Archives Episode Three
/ Updated Oct. 13, 2022 / 5:46 PM UTC14 PHOTOS Explosion at the Hercules Powder Plant
52 people were killed and hundreds were wounded after an explosion at the Hercules Powder Plant in Kenvil, New Jersey on September 12, 1942. The federal government had received a tip months earlier about a plot to target munitions factories in the United States.— Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty ImagesShare Leon Lewis
Photo of Leon Lewis, a Jewish lawyer and activist in Los Angeles in the 1930s. Lewis formed a secret spy network to infiltrate fascist organizations in Los Angeles in order to expose their activities and stop them from committing acts of violence.— Courtesy ADLShare German Day celebration
People raising a swastika at a German Day celebration at Hindenburg Park in Los Angeles in 1936.— Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, Community Relations Committee Collection, Special Collection and Archives, California State University, NorthridgeShare Aryan Bookstore
Photo of the Aryan Bookstore in Los Angeles, which sold Nazi books and pamphlets in the 1930s.— Getty ImagesShare Deutsches Haus
Photo of the Deutsches Haus in Los Angeles.— Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, Community Relations Committee Collection, Special Collection and Archives, California State University, NorthridgeShare Offerings at the Aryan Bookstore
A list of books available for purchase at the Aryan Bookstore in Los Angeles.— Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, Community Relations Committee Collection, Special Collection and Archives, California State University, NorthridgeShare Wake up
A business card from the Aryan Bookstore in Los Angeles.— Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, Community Relations Committee Collection, Special Collection and Archives, California State University, NorthridgeShare William Dudley Pelley
Silver Shirts leader William Dudley Pelley, dressed in uniform.— Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, Community Relations Committee Collection, Part 2, Special Collections and Archives, Oviatt Library, California State University, NorthridgeShare UN-AMERICAN
A wanted poster seeking the arrest of William Dudley Pelley.— Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, Community Relations Committee Collection, Special Collection and Archives, California State University, NorthridgeShare The Silvershirt Weekly
A copy of William Dudley Pelley's magazine, The Silvershirt Weekly.— Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, Community Relations Committee Collection, Special Collection and Archives, California State University, NorthridgeShare For Christ and Constitution
A member of the Silver Legion distributes the group's fascist propaganda newspaper outside of the Los Angeles Aryan Bookstore in 1934.— Getty ImagesShare If our constitutional government had gone down
Testimony from William Dudley Pelley to the House of Representatives Special Committee to Investigate Un-American Activities on February 8, 1940. Pelley told the committee he would put into effect the anti-Jewish policies of the Hitler government if the American constitution was toppled and he was installed as leader.— House of Representatives, Special Committee to Investigate Un-American Activities, Washington, D.C.Share George Deatherage
Photo of George Deatherage testifying to Congress in 1939.— Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, photograph by Harris & Ewing, [reproduction number, e.g., LC-USZ62-123456]Share Snowstorm in Los Angeles
A report on activities at the Deutsches Haus in Los Angeles in 1939, describing how members planned to throw anti-Semitic propaganda from the top of a city building, a tactic called "snowstorming."— Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, Community Relations Committee Collection, Special Collection and Archives, California State University, NorthridgeShare1/14