Cold Case from the Film Archives.

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  • Author(s): Doherty, Thomas
  • Source:
    History Today. Jan2006, Vol. 56 Issue 1, p34-37. 4p.
  • Additional Information
    • Subject Terms:
      ANTI-Nazi movement in motion pictures; WARNER Bros.; MOTION picture industry; WARNER, Jack L., 1892-1978; KAUFMAN, Phil; FASCISTS; NATIONAL socialism
    • Subject Terms:
      GERMANY
    • Abstract:
      The article offers information on the case of the death of Joe Kauffman, an executive of film studio Warner Brothers in Germany, who was allegedly beaten to death by the Nazis in Germany which led to the anti-Nazi stance of the studio. Studio chief Jack L. Warner referred to the death of Kauffman as the reason for the decision of Warner Brothers to shut down its operations in Germany and to produce the 1939 film Confessions of a Nazi Spy. It has been found through the back pages of Motion Picture Herald that Joe Kauffman was actually Phil Kaufmann, a British executive of the film studio in Germany, who died suddenly, not in Germany but in Stockholm, Sweden.