In the wake of Adolf Hitler’s terrifying ascent to power in 1933 Germany, Florence Mendheim, a New York City librarian, went undercover as a spy, infiltrating the Nazi-associated “Friends of New Germany” club and reporting to the American Jewish Congress. 

Born to Jewish German immigrants in 1899, Mendheim was reared in a traditional middle-class Jewish environment. Though the Mendheims were a traditional Jewish-American family– kosher, educated, semi-bourgeois–Florence actively defied the gendered expectations of her upbringing. An unmarried woman, she dedicated herself fully to her career as a librarian. Her work not only enabled her to traverse the city freely and granted her access to unlimited information, it also provided the perfect cover for a spy. 

Mendheim’s growing concern for family in Germany fueled her work as an undercover agent for the American Jewish Congress. As the anti-Jewish rhetoric of the Nazi regime spread quickly, Nazi-associated groups sprang up in New York. The “Friends of New Germany” club in particular became the subject of Mendheim’s surveillance. Founded in 1933, it had 5,000-10,000 members at its peak. Marketed as a social club, the true purpose of the group was disseminating anti-Jewish propaganda. Forced to contend with “the coldest lot of men the world could produce,” Mendheim placed herself at continual risk to record Nazi propaganda. She regularly attended meetings, crossed the city with self-described Nazis, and even worked as a clerk for Friends of New Germany. She detailed her findings in letters to the American Jewish Congress’s Rabbi Jacob Xenab Cohen. 

Many Americans viewed Nazism with passive concern. Though Jewish leaders like Rabbi Stephen Wise urged Americans to boycott German goods, some condemned such actions as warmongering. Amid the United States government’s isolationist policies, Mendheim’s self-sacrifice helped shed light on the dangers of Nazism. Scholars have speculated that her reports informed 1934 congressional hearings on Nazi propaganda. Ultimately, her warnings fell upon deaf ears; Congress deemed Friends of New Germany a loud and racist group but concluded it was protected by the First Amendment. 

After learning there was an informant in their midst, Friends of New Germany changed its membership policy, requiring members to provide documentation proving their German heritage. By 1939, Mendhiem’s activities as a spy ceased. Her relatives in Germany, who had written her frantic letters about the Third Reich, were deported to concentration camps. Florence continued her work as a librarian, passing away in 1984. 

Source:

Leo Baeck Institute. “Exile Episode 1.” Acessed August 20, 2025. https://www.lbi.org/media/documents/Episode_1_Florence_Mendheim_FINAL_TRANSCRIPT.pdf.