The town of Hurley may seem an unlikely place for the birth of a spy ring, let alone one that would take on Nazis in America in the years before World War II. But it is the birthplace of Leon Lewis — a man who fought against the hate group’s activities, specifically thwarting a pre-war Nazi plot to infiltrate Hollywood. 

“There was actually a plan to bring about an armed insurrection,” Lewis’ grandson, Tom Read, said of an even more dangerous plot that his forebear also defused. “The Nazis had detailed floor plans of U.S. military armories on the West Coast.”

Born in Hurley to German Jewish immigrants in 1888, Lewis attended the University of Wisconsin and the University of Chicago Law School, going on to become the first national secretary of the Anti-Defamation League. He served in Army intelligence in World War I and afterward settled in Los Angeles, again working in Jewish community relations. Alarmed by the rise of Nazism, not just in Germany but also the United States, Lewis recruited undercover fake Nazis to spy on the group, leading to successful prosecutions of Nazi leaders that upset their plans.

Read more at Wisconsin Public Radio