Poster of a caricatured Jewish man fiddling and dancing on human bones
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 27.500 inches (69.85 cm) | Width: 19.125 inches (48.578 cm)
Archival History
The antisemitic poster was acquired by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2007.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, The Abraham and Ruth Goldfarb Family Acquisition Fund
Funding Note: The acquisition of this collection was made possible by The Abraham and Ruth Goldfarb Family Acquisition Fund.
Scope and Content
Anti-Jewish poster issued in German occupied Serbia in the fall of 1941 for the Grand Anti-Masonic Exhibition in Belgrade from October 22, 1941, to January 19, 1942. It depicts a grotesquely caricatured Jewish man dancing ecstatically on a huge pile of broken skeletons while playing a violin, his weapon for spreading lies. The exhibit focused on the alleged Jewish-Communist-Masonic conspiracy to achieve world domination. Jews were portrayed as the source of all evil, which had to be destroyed, along with Jewish controlled countries, such as the Soviet Union and the US, and any outsider groups that opposed Nazi Germany. Yugoslavia was invaded and dismembered by the Axis powers in April 1941. Germany annexed most of Slovenia and placed Serbia under military occupation. The exhibition was organized by the Serbian puppet government of Milan Nedic in collaboration with the German occupiers.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
No restrictions on use
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Offset color lithograph poster on paper with a gradient red/orange background in the upper half and a black background in the lower. Filling the top is an oversized caricature of a Jewish man wearing a skull cap and a long black garment with light red shading. He holds a violin under his chin that he plays with the bow in his right hand. He looks gloatingly downwards; his face is excited, his eyes bulge from the sockets, and his nose is disproportionately large for his already exaggerated features. He has fleshy, protruding lips, a long beard, and peyot (side curls). He is dancing on a pile of disarticulated white human bones, including several skulls. There are 3 lines of Serbian text across the center. See 2016.184.328 for another version of this poster.
Subjects
- Jews--Caricatures and cartoons.
- World War, 1939-1945--Propaganda--Posters.
- Antisemitism--Serbia--History--20th century--Posters.
- Antisemitism--Pictorial works.
- Antisemitism in art.
- Anti-Jewish propaganda--Serbia--20th century--Posters--Specimens.
Genre
- Posters
- Object