Two clips from an anti-Jewish Nazi propaganda film, Jud Süß

Identifier
irn1004358
Language of Description
English
Alt. Identifiers
  • 2009.244.1
  • RG-60.4859
Dates
1 Jan 1940 - 31 Dec 1940
Level of Description
Item
Languages
  • German
Source
EHRI Partner

Creator(s)

Scope and Content

01:11:19 to 01:11:33 Suess and the Duke watch a ballet rehearsal from a balcony. The Duke orders his secretary to go and fetch one of the ballet dancers for him. 01:11:39 to 01:11:47 Suess and the Duke at a ball at the palace. A woman lifts the skirt of another woman to show off the second woman's legs to the Duke. Suess smiles at the girl and the Duke removes her mask and asks her why she is crying. [Suess has arranged for the young pretty girls to be separated from the others at the ball so that the Duke can have his choice. Suess himself dances with and attempts to seduce Dorothea].

Conditions Governing Reproduction

Copyright Holder: Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Stiftung

Note(s)

  • The excerpt from R. 2 is a total of 10 meters long. The Bundesarchiv documentation must be checked to confirm that these clips all belong to R. 2.

  • Plot synopsis: The newly installed Duke of the Duchy of Wuerttemberg, Karl Alexander (played by Heinrich George), needs money to buy jewels for his wife and to pay for other costly items. He sends his adviser to ask for help from Joseph Suess Oppenheimer (Ferdinand Marian), a Jew who lives in Frankfurt. Suess agrees to help the Duke only if he is allowed to deliver the jewels in person, which he cannot legally do since Jews are barred from entering the city of Stuttgart. The adviser arranges false papers for Suess and Suess shaves his beard and wears courtly clothing. On the way to Stuttgart he meets Dorothea Sturm (Kristina Soederbaum), a Christian girl who is the daughter of the head of the Duke's council and who is betrothed to the council secretary. Little by little Suess gains more power until he convinces the Duke, who is now deeply in debt to Suess, to dissolve the council and allow Suess to do whatever he likes in the name of the Duke. He arrests Dorothea's father and husband and rapes the girl, who drowns herself. The Duke dies of a heart attack, removing the last protection for Suess, who is hanged by the citizens of Stuttgart for defiling an Aryan girl. The Jews, who have been allowed to enter Stuttgart while Suess was in power, are expelled once again. The film has obvious references to Nazi policy and goals. This plot summary provides only enough information to make sense of the clips and some key points in the story may be omitted. For further information and analysis of this film see "The Demonic Effect": Veit Harlan's Use of Jewish Extras in Jud Suess (1940) in Holocaust and Genocide Studies 2000 14 (2): 215-241.

  • Leslie Swift, Special Advisor, Time-Based Media, in response to a German institution who claimed that we do not have permission to publicly stream the following films, requested that their access permissions be changed to On Campus only. I have applied Access statement A2. The copyright and conditions of use statements have been changed to show: Copyright Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Stiftung Conditions on Use Contact Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Stiftung at footage@murnau-stiftung.de for permission to reproduce and use this film. RG-60.1167-1172 (already on-campus only) RG-60.1175-1179 RG-60.1201-1204 RG-60.4858-4861

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This description is derived directly from structured data provided to EHRI by a partner institution. This collection holding institution considers this description as an accurate reflection of the archival holdings to which it refers at the moment of data transfer.