Lectures explore Nazi ties to U.S., Latin America

The complex interaction between Nazi Germany, anti-Nazi refugees, Latin America, Eastern Europe and the United States will be explored in UW–Madison’s Curti Lecture series Oct. 26-28.

Friedrich Katz, a distinguished historian at the University of Chicago, will present three discussions on various aspects of the subject:

• “Nazi Germany and the Cardenas Administration,” Oct. 26. In the 1930s, Mexico had the only leftist government in Latin America. In the opening lecture, Katz will discuss German policy toward those countries.
• “The Anti-Nazi Refugees in Mexico and their Surveillance by U.S. Intelligence Agencies,” Oct. 27. The prominent anti-Nazi German intellectuals, many of them communists, who fled Germany for Mexico established one of world’s most important centers of anti-fascist activity. Katz will outline surveillance operations carried out by the State Department, FBI, Naval Intelligence and OSS, and the practical consequences.
• “The Return Home in the Stalinist Trials,” Oct. 28. After the war, many of the refugees who fled Hitler settled in East Germany or Czechoslovakia. Katz will describe their involvement in the Stalinist trials in those countries.

According to Stanley Payne, UW–Madison professor of history and scholar of fascism, Katz’s lectures hold a great deal of interest during this era of renewed nationalism and closer ties between the U.S. and Latin America.

All Curti Lectures, named for UW–Madison Pulitzer Prize winning historian Merle Curti, begin at 4 p.m. in the auditorium of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. For more information, contact Danny Struebing at (608) 263-1810.