Date of Award
5-2022
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.A.
Degree Program
History
Department
History
Major Professor
Gunter Bischof
Second Advisor
James Mokhiber
Third Advisor
Henry Griffin
Abstract
During the early 1960s when the American Civil Rights movement was beginning to gain momentum, another movement across the world was taking place to solidify the newly formed country of Israel as a sovereign state. To commemorate the foundation of Israel, American director Otto Preminger created the film Exodus, adapted from a book of the same name by Leon Uris. George Lincoln Rockwell, leader of the American Nazi Party, decided to take action by traveling throughout the country with his closest members to protest the film. Rockwell and his group of Nazis were outraged by the pro-Zionist depictions and the use of previously blacklisted screenwriters of Hollywood that were accused of being communist. This thesis will discuss the struggles of interpreting the First Amendment to the US Constitution, the conflict among American Jews on how to handle the rise of Nazism in America, and how the counter-protests gave a sense of validation to Holocaust survivors who faced their deepest fears. This thesis will also cover recent affairs and their relationship with the events that occurred in the early 1960s.
Recommended Citation
Van, Jason, "'The Street Scene Prologue': Holocaust Survivors, the American Nazi Party, and Exodus" (2022). University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations. 2954.
https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/2954
Included in
American Film Studies Commons, Film and Media Studies Commons, Holocaust and Genocide Studies Commons, Jewish Studies Commons, Social History Commons, United States History Commons
Rights
The University of New Orleans and its agents retain the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible this dissertation or thesis in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The author retains all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation.