Norma Barzman, One of the Last Surviving Members of the Hollywood Blacklist, Dies at 103

The screenwriter lived abroad for 27 years with her family after being monitored by the FBI

Norma Barzman
Via Scott Feinberg on YouTube

Norma Barzman, one of the last surviving members of the Hollywood Blacklist, has died at her home in Beverly Hills at the age of 103, according to media reports.

Born in New York City, Barzman moved to Hollywood in the 1940s and married fellow screenwriter Ben Barzman. Looking for ways to organize around progressive politics, the pair joined the Communist Party from 1942-49.

“Hitler was invading the Soviet Union, so there was no reason to be anti-Russian. They were our allies at the time,” Barzman told the blog FilmTalk last year.

But after World War II, Barzman began to get warnings from her neighbors that her family was under surveillance, and one day heard a conversation she had with a friend days prior when she picked up the phone.

“I

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