The spy network that took on America's Nazi groups

In this episode of Fresh Air, host Terry Gross interviews historian Stephen J. Ross about his new book, The Secret War Against Hate, which chronicles the covert efforts of Jewish and nonsectarian anti-Nazi organizations in the U.S. from the 1940s through the 1970s to infiltrate and dismantle post-World War II American Nazi groups. Ross details how the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee, and the now-defunct Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League recruited and paid undercover operatives—some rising to leadership roles within hate groups like the Colombians and the National Renaissance Party—to gather intelligence and report to law enforcement. These efforts were born out of desperation, as government agencies like the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover ignored or dismissed threats from white supremacists, leaving communities to defend themselves. The episode draws powerful parallels to the recent indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which faces charges of fraud and money laundering for using donor funds to pay undercover informants—a tactic the SPLC discontinued but which mirrors the very strategies Ross describes. Ross argues that such infiltration was not only legal but necessary, and that the indictment may be politically motivated, echoing past attempts to discredit anti-hate organizations as 'Jewish Gestapo.' He emphasizes that hate movements have long exploited grievance politics, and that today’s far-right extremism—exemplified by groups like the Proud Boys and the January 6th insurrectionists—has deep roots in the post-war American Nazi movement.