Ben Hecht

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Ben Hecht (February 28, 1894 – April 18, 1964) was an American Jewish screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, journalist and novelist. He gained fame early through a Broadway play, The Front Page, critical of his chosen profession and the way his fellow journalists manage the news at the expense of their subjects.

But during the Second World War he became famous for something else: unabashed advocacy for the Jews against the Nazis. In 1944, he wrote a work titled A Guide for the Bedeviled, roundly criticizing "objective thinkers" who, as he saw it, expressed too much sympathy for Germans when the first rumors of the Holocaust already had become too prominent to ignore. He also played an active role in the supply of what became the State of Israel. The British boycotted his work in retaliation for his activities.

External links[edit]

• Biography at the Encyclopædia Britannica
• Biography at the Jewish Virtual Library