Files released under the Freedom of Information Act to the editor of Gizmodo’s Paleofuture blog reveal that Norman Chandler, who became publisher of the Los Angeles Times in 1944, knew some notorious people in the 1930s and some of them were Nazis. The files disclose, in addition to knowing them, he met with Nazis in The City of Angels as late as 1938.
An FBI informant reported that Chandler was regally entertained in Germany, and his sojourn through the nation had been smoothed for him by the federal government.
Even more astounding was the report of an FBI informant who reported Chandler. But its one particular party mentioned in the file that I found most jaw-dropping. Especially when you consider that Norman Chandler was supervising the publication of a newspaper in a city growing by leaps and bounds.
According to an FBI informant, Chandler was present at a party in early 1938 at the home of the German Consul in LA with a group of recognized Nazi advocates.
Chandler, who knew FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, was asked by the FBI about the letter of introduction in 1941. Chandler contended that, if the letters had been penned by his brother, Harrison Chandler, he would most likely be the person to talk with.
By the end of the war, Chandler appears to have changed his mind about his previous defense of the Nazi regime during the 1930s, if it can be believed that he didn’t truly know of the atrocities they were committing. He was among a number of news managers who visited Germany after the war’s end to see the atrocities of the Holocaust directly.
The Associated Press reported on May 15, 1945, that following a return from examining German prison camps Chandler said descriptions of atrocities within them had been understatements, not an exaggeration.
Further, he said that they couldn’t find one German who would admit they had been allegiant to the Nazi party.
Chandler’s FBI file includes other events, including one in 1939 when the FBI took umbrage to an LA Times writer who made serious, insulting remarks against the Director personally and the Bureau.
Apparently, Hoover undertook an investigation against the Taylor Trumbo the writer, who Chandler defended as responsible of nothing more than losing his temper, Paleo Future reported.
Chandler became general manager of the newspaper in 1936, President in 1941, and publisher in 1944.