Anti-Jewish propaganda film: ritual animal slaughter; antisemitic legislation; Aryan ideal

A propaganda film declared as a "documentary film contribution about the problem of world Judaism," in which antisemitic stereotypes are disseminated by the Nazis, including scenes showing: Poland as a nesting place for Judaism; the comparison of Jews with rats; the difference between Jews and Aryans; "international crime"; "financial Judaism"; "assimilated Jews"; the Jewish influence on economics, culture, and politics; and Jewish religious practice with a portrayal of haggling and misused sacred Jewish texts. REEL 8 More shots of Jewish men at prayer in a synagogue, with the commentary: "That is no religion and no religious service, that is a conspiracy against all non-Jews of a cunning, unhealthy, contaminated race, against the health of the Aryan people and against their moral laws." 00:56:56 Titles: One of the most instructive customs of the Jewish so-called religion is the slaughter of animals. The following pictures are genuine. They are among the most horrifying that a camera has ever taken. We are showing them in spite of this, without regard for objections on the ground of taste. Because more important than all objections is the fact that our people should know the truth about Judaism. Sensitive compatriots are advised not to look at the following pictures. 00:57:48 Scenes of Kosher animal slaughter (11 October 1939, Łódź, Poland: Moller notes that the synagogue was reopened for the day of October 10 and the prohibition on kosher slaughter was lifted for one day on the 11, so that Hippler could shoot these scenes): a cow tethered to a wooden fence, close-up of a Jewish 'schochet' holding a knife, the cow is led into the slaughterhouse followed by three Jewish 'schochets' holding knives. The cow's legs are bound and it is brought to the ground, its throat is then cut. Sustained close-up shots of death of the animal. (There is neither commentary nor sound effects over these scenes, only natural sound.) 00:59:36 Brief close-up shots of the faces of the Jewish men in the slaughter-house. 00:59:40 Brief shots of another cow slaughtered in the same way. Narrator: "Jewish law has no love and regard for animals in the Germanic sense. Jews refuse to put a suffering animal out of its misery." 01:00:15 Shots of German newspaper articles dealing with Nazi attempts to forbid the Kosher slaughter of animals. 01:01:11 Shots of a large herd of cows, calves, sheep and lambs. 01:01:29 Interior scenes of the Kosher slaughter of sheep (11 October 1939, Łódź, Poland): sheep are brought into a slaughterhouse, laid on wooden cradles and have their throats cut. [See 01:01:46 for view of same 'schochet' seen outdoors in following sequence. In interior scene he wears a white apron.] 01:01:49 An unbound cow is brought to the ground and has its throat cut by a 'schochet' in a full white coat; it then raises itself and stumbles around, bleeding profusely, before it is brought down again. Narration: "These picture prove the cruelty of this form of slaughter. It reveals the character of a race which conceals its brutality beneath a cloak of pious religious practices." 01:02:40 Narrator: "As soon as the Führer assumed power, a law passed on 21 April 1933 prohibited this Jewish form of slaughter." The narration then mentions other anti-Jewish legislation, the Law relating to German citizenship, 14 November 1935, the Law Concerning the Protection of German honor and German blood, 15 September 1935, and the Law Concerning the Act of Expiation by German Jews, 12 November 1938. Narrator: "And as with slaughter, so has Nazi Germany done away with all Jewry. The Jewish spirit and Jewish blood will never more contaminate the German people. Under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, Germany has raised the battle flag of war against the eternal Jew." 01:03:15 The final section of the film begins with newsreel footage of Adolf Hitler addressing the Reichstag at the Kroll Opera House, Berlin, on 30 January 1939: "Europe cannot find peace until the Jewish question is solved." Shots of Aryan youth including brief footage from "Triumph des Willens" (Triumph of the Will) with the commentary: "The eternal law of nature, to keep one's race pure, is the legacy which the National Socialist movement bequeaths to the German people forever. It is with this resolve that the united German people marches on into the future." The film closes with shots of marching German troops and the Nazi flag.