Neo-Nazism confuses me, especially those in that movement in the US and the UK, given how much those two countries devoted themselves to fighting the first Nazi menace in WWII. My grandfather was in the Army in WWII. Even if I didn’t have that separation from the fight by a couple of degrees, I would say the believers in such ideologies are traitors to the countries which have such a strong belief in freedom.
It is a paradox which breaks my brain, that democracy could allow movements to flourish which are intent on destroying the system which enabled them to exist. This topic is explored in 1939’s Confessions of a Nazi Spy, in which FBI agent Edward G. Robinson investigates the Nazi infiltration of the US prior to the country’s entry into the war. At that time, it was a war of propaganda described by a narrator as “aided by the dishonest, disloyal and disgruntled […] inciting racial prejudice, ridiculing democracy, striving to shatter that attitude of tolerance and respect for minority rights.”
My stomach churned as I watched this movie for the first time in June of 2025. It seems inconceivable so many aspects of the Nazi’s campaign as depicted in this picture could rhyme so seamlessly with events in the US 86 years after the film was released. I find myself in an era where Elon Musk and Steve Bannon long-arm salute President Trump in a manner which will recall only one thing to those with any knowledge of history, and I don’t mean the Romans who were disingenuously cited as the influence for this.
Consider this speech Paul Lukas delivers to German-Americans near the start of the picture: “National Socialism in the U.S. must dress itself in the American flag. It must appear to be a defense of Americanism. But at the same time, our aim must always be to discredit conditions there. Racial and religious hatred must be fostered. Class hatreds must be encouraged in such a way that labor and the middle classes will become confused and antagonistic.”
At the same time I am hearing those words in a movie this old, the current U.S. administration is frantically rolling back diversity and inclusion initiatives. This is under the ruse of alleged meritocracy, except it is only White men who are considered equal. While that is happening, we have masked government agents snatching up those of certain racial profiles indiscriminately, and even sending send of them to be imprisoned in countries without extradition treaties with the U.S.—and all this without due process.
Concurrent with the rollback of these DEI polices in the workplace, we have many unqualified people falling up into positions in business and government in which they have no right to be. More than a few are in the President’s cabinet. When you have anti-vax zealots overseeing the National Institute of Health and the Center for Disease Control, you know we have already surpassed the wildest moments of the movie Idiocracy, and that was supposed to be a farce.
The makers of that movie didn’t foresee what this 1939 film does, where a ship’s captain is forced to promote a man not because of his skill, but solely on his party affiliation. The captain tries to stand his ground: “It’s my business when they force me to promote somebody simply because he’s a good Nazi.” Alas, he acquiesces when Nazi commandant George Sanders informs him this order comes directly from the S.S.
Another aspect of the film which is unfortunately relevant today is how women are regarded. In the present day, women continue to get the short end of the stick and, by that, I’m not even alluding to how sexually unfulfilled so many wives of these “MAGA” men must be. In this movie, we see a U.S. Nazi rally, complete with a regiment of young female inductees. Lukas asks them their goal, and the leader of the troop answers, “To be the custodian of our children until [the Furher] should call them to arms.” Chilling stuff. Simply replacing the word “President” for “Furher” makes this sound like something schools could be teaching soon, what with the dismantling of the Department of Education and the “Tradwives” movement currently sweeping the nation. If that is successful enough, the women of American might soon be doing little more than the literal sweeping. Oh, that is when they aren’t rearing the lil’ future soldiers.
Lukas also remarks how inspirational he finds a Nazi parade with soldiers marching through the streets. On the weekend before I wrote this essay, the U.S. had the bizarre spectacle of a military parade in Washington D.C. which was ostensibly for the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Army, but which was really a birthday tribute for our beloved leader. It was the kind of thing not only normally associated with the Nazis, but also with such totalitarian regimes as those of Russia and North Korea. Seeing the Roman imagery in such spectacles as depicted in the 1939 picture had me surprised we didn’t see any of that in the pageant for our prez.
I also find it ironic so many of these MAGA people today were so recently making government officials at various levels swear an oath to protect The Constitution, given how hell-bent they now seem to be on destroying it. This also has an analogue in this movie, with Lukas declaring: “If American is to be free we must destroy […] the United States Constitution.” Talk like this feels like the ultimate moving of the goalposts, and positioning them well past the Statue of Liberty, possibly even back in time and behind the Berlin Wall. Maybe Elon Musk could launch the goal posts into space, if only he could stop blowing up those rockets on launch. Maybe that’s why these MAGA people want to change the national anthem to “God Bless the U.S.A”—they’re offended by the line “bursting in air”.
All this bullshit in the present day makes it extraordinarily difficult to judge the movie on its own merits. I suspect that, if I had seen this before the most recent change in management, I would have found it laughably simplistic and melodramatic. I know I was bemused by a moment where Sanders rattles off a list of German names that were such stereotypes as to have me wondering whether the list would end in John Jingleheimer Schmidt. And yet, given the world in which I find myself at this time, this picture largely seems relatively restrained in comparison.
The secret spy at the heart of the story is Francis Lederer, a German emigree who is convinced to be a spy through such propaganda as Lukas’s speeches. On his trail is FBI agent Robinson, who is involved because the entire counter-espionage effort in the U.S. government is comprised of two men. Jeez, did they have the Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency decimating federal departments even back then?
This is a competently made film, but still an anti-propaganda picture that is, itself, a work of propaganda. There aren’t many flourishes, bar an exceptionally well-done transition in the shape of the swastika, which had to be unnerving to whomever implemented that effect.
One thing for certain is this is an unnerving film to watch now. The following assortment of lines by Nazis in the film seems relevant to our present situation. “The party doesn’t want criticism, only obedience.” “From now on, your watchword with be ‘America for Americans’.” “Those who fight us must suffer socially as well as economically.” “In the ensuing chaos, we will be able to take control.”
We need more people like the American Legion guy in this movie who stands up during Lukas’s speech and declares: “A lot of us Americans fought you because we thought the Constitution and the Bill of Rights was worth fighting for.” That guy only gets thrown out of the rally. In real-life, we had two protestors who were tasered at a rally for Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene on April 15 of 2025. On June 12th, Senator Alex Padilla was arrested for daring to ask a question at a press conference held by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
We need more people in the world like those who marched in the “No Kings” events around the U.S. concurrent with the military parade this past Saturday. We need more people like my grandfather, and my wife’s grandfather, each of whom was in the war against the Nazis the first time around. We need more people to watch movies like Confessions of a Nazi Spy, not only to be aware of a past we shouldn’t have to relive, but to see how wolves have draped themselves in the American flag once before.
Dir: Anatole Litvak
Starring Edward G. Robinson, Francis Lederer, George Sanders, Paul Lukas
Watched on Warner Archive blu-ray