Amazon Film Looks at Illegal Gambling Boss Who Fought Nazis in the US

A new Amazon Prime documentary tells the story of the clashes between Jewish gangsters and Nazis in America. The documentary is called The Last Man Standing: The Chronicles of Myron Sugerman and follows the life of Sugarman, a criminal gambling mogul who often clashed with anti-Semitic groups in the United States.

Sugarman operated a variety of illegal gambling businesses and machines in New Jersey and Manhattan. In the movie, the now-85-year-old remembers his time at the Kosher-Nostra, the notorious Jewish mafia in America. Sugarman’s foray into the world of organized crime was facilitated by his father, Barney “Sugie” Sugerman, who was friends with many famous mobsters.

Sugie participated in a variety of illegal activities, from operating a variety of gambling machines to organizing illegal fights and robberies. However, Sugerman Junior was the true “godfather of illegal slot machines,” at least in his own words. He also describes himself as the “biggest contrabandist and bootlegger of Bally Bingo machines” in the US.

Although Sugarman has quite an impressive track record of participation in organized crime, he claims that a part of the mafia’s drive was to show others that Jews are tough and can fight. Regardless of whether this moral justification is true or not, Sugarman’s illegal gambling operations eventually earned him a prison sentence.

Despite that, Sugarman says that he does not feel sorry for his distribution and operation of gambling machines. He believes that the only reason the government outlawed these activities is that it wanted the profits for itself. The ex-mobster summarized this as “the big fish eating the small fish.”

Organized Crime Clashed with Nazism

Evidently, the Nazi rhetoric attracted the animosity of the Kosher-Nostra. Even before Sugerman had been born, the mob had founded the Newark Minutemen, a gang that was dedicated to fighting promoters of Nazi ideology.

Since 1930, the Newark Minutemen regularly clashed with American Nazis, including “the Hitler of the US,” Fritz Kuhn, and his followers. According to Sugarman, in later years, the mobsters would chase the Nazis out of buildings with stink bombs and beat them outside.

Several decades later, Sugarman joined forces with Simon Wiesenthal, a famous “Nazi hunter,” as the two sought to find Josef Mengele, Hitler’s “Angel of Death.” Sugarman funded Wiesenthal’s search and the two of them became good friends.

You can see Myron Sugarman’s story for yourself by watching The Last Man Standing: The Chronicles of Myron Sugerman on Amazon Prime. The hour-long movie is available for $9.99.