Max Wallace is a New York Times-bestselling author and historian specializing in the
Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...
, human rights in sport, and popular culture. He is also an award-winning
filmmaker
Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, castin ...
, and long-time disability advocate.
Literary works
In the Name of Humanity: The Secret Deal to End the Holocaust
Winner of the 2018
Canadian Jewish Literary Award (Holocaust category.) Published by
Penguin/Random House, this work focuses on the heroic actions of a Swiss-based rescue committee headed by an
ultra-Orthodox
Haredi Judaism ( he, ', ; also spelled ''Charedi'' in English; plural ''Haredim'' or ''Charedim'') consists of groups within Orthodox Judaism that are characterized by their strict adherence to ''halakha'' (Jewish law) and traditions, in oppos ...
Jewish couple,
Recha and Isaac Sternbuch.
The book presents evidence linking Himmler's decree to these secret negotiations after the author discovered documents housed in an Orthodox Jewish archive at New York's
Yeshiva University
Yeshiva University is a private Orthodox Jewish university with four campuses in New York City.["About YU]
on the Yeshiva Universi ...
linking Himmler's orders to the Musy negotiations. Among these documents is a cable sent by the Sternbuchs through the Polish diplomatic code to the
Vaad ha-Hatzalah in New York on November 20, 1944 detailing Musy's negotiations with Himmler. The cable informed the ''Vaad'' that Musy had received a ''"promise to cease extermination in concentration camps''." On November 22, the Sternbuchs sent another cable revealing that the Papal nuncio in Switzerland had "received a promise that the slaughters will cease." Three days later, Himmler ordered the destruction of the Auschwitz extermination apparatus.
The
Canadian Jewish News described Wallace's book as "an impressive piece of scholarship and a compelling chapter of Holocaust history." The book was also a finalist for the 2018
RBC Taylor Prize for the best work of literary non-fiction.
''The American Axis: Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh and the Rise of the Third Reich''
This work, published in 2003 by St. Martin's Press about the
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
sympathies of two American icons, received a cover endorsement by two-time
Pulitzer-Prize winning historian
Arthur Schlesinger Jr.
Arthur Meier Schlesinger Jr. (; born Arthur Bancroft Schlesinger; October 15, 1917 – February 28, 2007) was an American historian, social critic, and public intellectual. The son of the influential historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Sr. and a spe ...
In the book, Wallace details the close collaboration between the aviator
Charles Lindbergh
Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974) was an American aviator, military officer, author, inventor, and activist. On May 20–21, 1927, Lindbergh made the first nonstop flight from New York City to Paris, a distance o ...
and the automotive pioneer
Henry Ford
Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. By creating the first automobile that ...
and traces the evolution of their sympathetic views on
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
.
As the first unauthorized biographer ever to gain access to Lindbergh's archives at Yale University, Wallace presents details of the flier's many trips to Germany during the 1930s and his increasing admiration for
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
and the Third Reich. He reveals evidence that the Germans used Lindbergh as an unwilling dupe so that they could vastly inflate German air estimates although the German air force was much weaker than it pretended. The book argues that Lindbergh's well-publicized description of German air superiority played a major role in the western decision to
appease Hitler at Munich in 1938. Only weeks after the
Munich Agreement
The Munich Agreement ( cs, Mnichovská dohoda; sk, Mníchovská dohoda; german: Münchner Abkommen) was an agreement concluded at Munich on 30 September 1938, by Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy. It provided "cession to Germany ...
, the Nazis presented Lindbergh with their highest civilian honor, the
Order of the German Eagle
The Order of Merit of the German Eagle (german: Verdienstorden vom Deutschen Adler) was an award of the German Nazi regime, predominantly to foreign diplomats. The Order was instituted on 1 May 1937 by Adolf Hitler.
It ceased to be awarded follo ...
.
Wallace also traces the mysterious evolution of Ford's anti-Semitism, and reveals evidence proving that Ford's private secretary,
Ernest Liebold, had been a German spy during the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
and who was largely responsible for turning Ford against the Jews by convincing him that Jewish communists were conspiring to unionize his company. Liebold also used the ''Independent'' as a vehicle to blame Jews the defeat of Germany in the First World War and for the rise of Bolshevism. A series of articles trumpeting that theme was translated into German and published in book form as ''
The International Jew
''The International Jew'' is a four-volume set of antisemitic booklets or pamphlets originally published and distributed in the early 1920s by the Dearborn Publishing Company, an outlet owned by Henry Ford, the American industrialist and aut ...
''. The book was later cited by many Nazis as deeply influential, including the leader of the
Hitler Youth
The Hitler Youth (german: Hitlerjugend , often abbreviated as HJ, ) was the youth organisation of the Nazi Party in Germany. Its origins date back to 1922 and it received the name ("Hitler Youth, League of German Worker Youth") in July 1926. ...
,
Baldur von Schirach, who testified at the
Nuremberg Trials
The Nuremberg trials were held by the Allies against representatives of the defeated Nazi Germany, for plotting and carrying out invasions of other countries, and other crimes, in World War II.
Between 1939 and 1945, Nazi Germany invaded m ...
, "I read it and became anti-Semitic."
''Who Killed Kurt Cobain?''
As a former music journalist, Wallace coauthored the international
bestseller ''
Who Killed Kurt Cobain?'' with
Ian Halperin in 1998 (described as a "judicious presentation of explosive material" by ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
)''. Much of the book explores the phenomenon of the 68 copycat suicides following the death of Cobain in April, 1994.
''Love and Death: The Murder of Kurt Cobain''
Published in 2004, Wallace wrote ''
Love and Death: The Murder of Kurt Cobain'' with Halperin,
which reached the
New York Times bestseller list
''The New York Times'' Best Seller list is widely considered the preeminent list of best-selling books in the United States. John Bear, ''The #1 New York Times Best Seller: intriguing facts about the 484 books that have been #1 New York Times ...
. The book presents explosive tapes recorded by Beverly Hills Private Investigator
Tom Grant, who was hired by
Courtney Love
Courtney Michelle Love (née Harrison; born July 9, 1964) is an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, and actress. A figure in the alternative and grunge scenes of the 1990s, her career has spanned four decades. She rose to prominence as ...
to find her husband after
Kurt Cobain went missing from a Los Angeles drug rehab facility in April 1994. Among the tapes is a recording of Cobain's entertainment lawyer Rosemary Carroll, godmother to the couple's daughter
Frances Bean Cobain
Frances Bean Cobain (born August 18, 1992) is an American visual artist and model. She is the only child of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain and Hole frontwoman Courtney Love. She controls the publicity rights to her father's name and image.
...
, casting doubt on the official suicide theory and revealing Carroll's belief that the suicide note was "forged or traced." On the tapes, Carroll also revealed that Cobain was in the process of divorcing Love at the time of his death.
''Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight: Cassius Clay vs. the United States of America''
Written in 2000, this book covers
Muhammad Ali's long battle against the US government over his stand against the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...
. Ali wrote the foreword. In 2013, the book was adapted into a movie directed by two-time Oscar nominee
Stephen Frears
Stephen Arthur Frears (born 20 June 1941) is an English director and producer of film and television often depicting real life stories as well as projects that explore social class through sharply drawn characters. He's received numerous accola ...
, starring
Danny Glover,
Christopher Plummer
Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer (December 13, 1929 – February 5, 2021) was a Canadian actor. His career spanned seven decades, gaining him recognition for his performances in film, stage, and television. He received multiple accolades, inc ...
and
Frank Langella
Frank A. Langella Jr. (; born January 1, 1938) is an American stage and film actor. He has won four Tony Awards: two for Best Leading Actor in a Play for his performance as Richard Nixon in Peter Morgan's '' Frost/Nixon'' and as André in Flor ...
. The film premiered at the
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...
on May 23, 2013.
Film
Since 2009, Wallace has written video description for
AMI-TV
AMI-tv is a Canadian, English-language, digital cable specialty channel owned by the non-profit organization Accessible Media. AMI-tv broadcasts a selection of general entertainment programming with accommodations for those who are visually or h ...
, the world's first television network serving blind and visually impaired people. He is also a documentary filmmaker whose first film, ''
Too Colorful for the League'', about the history of
racism
Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonis ...
in
hockey
Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...
for CBC TV, was nominated for a
Gemini Award. The film documents a crusade to enshrine the black superstar
Herb Carnegie into the
Hockey Hall of Fame. Wallace has also contributed to the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
. His second film, ''
, had a US theatrical release and played in more than 75 film festivals around the world. In the 1990s, Wallace was the director and co-founder of both the
station.
for Holocaust studies in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. During the 1990s, he worked for several years with
s. For more than a decade, he has been researching Holocaust-era rescue operations and secret negotiations with high level Nazis during the waning days of the Second World War II to prevent the annihilation of the remaining Jews in Europe.
*''In the Name of Humanity: The Secret Deal to End the Holocaust (Penguin/Random House Canada'' and ''Skyhorse USA,'' 2018'')''
*''The American Axis: Ford, Lindbergh, and the Rise of the Third Reich'' (St. Martin's Press, 2003)
*''Who Killed Kurt Cobain?'' with
in 1998
*''Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight: Cassius Clay vs. the United States of America'' (M. Evans & Co., 2000)
*''Love & Death: The Murder of Kurt Cobain'' with Ian Halperin (Simon & Schuster, 2004)
for writing and producing CBC TV documentary Too Colourful For the League.
*2018: Shortlisted for 2018
(History Writing) for In the Name of Humanity
*2018: Won the 2018 Canadian Jewish Literature Award (Holocaust Literature Category) for In the Name of Humanity
" contest for best organic ornamental garden in Canada.