Brass nutcracker with a Fagin shaped handle

Identifier
irn537180
Language of Description
English
Alt. Identifiers
  • 2016.184.79
Level of Description
Item
Source
EHRI Partner

Extent and Medium

overall: Height: 4.875 inches (12.383 cm) | Width: 1.125 inches (2.858 cm) | Depth: 1.375 inches (3.493 cm)

Creator(s)

Biographical History

The Katz Ehrenthal Collection is a collection of more than 900 objects depicting Jews and antisemitic and anti-Jewish propaganda from the medieval to the modern era, in Europe, Russia, and the United States. The collection was amassed by Peter Ehrenthal, a Romanian Holocaust survivor, to document the pervasive history of anti-Jewish hatred in Western art, politics and popular culture. It includes crude folk art as well as pieces created by Europe's finest craftsmen, prints and periodical illustrations, posters, paintings, decorative art, and toys and everyday household items decorated with depictions of stereotypical Jewish figures.

Archival History

The nutcracker was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2016 by the Katz Family.

Acquisition

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of the Katz Family

Funding Note: The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.

Scope and Content

Brass lever nutcracker cast in the shape of Fagin holding a money bag. This style and similar nutcrackers were mass produced for a long period by the Pearson-Page brass company in England, under several names. Fagin is a devil-like Jewish criminal from the novel, Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens, 1837-39. The characterization is antisemitic and exploits many negative stereotypes. Referred to as The Jew, Fagin is villainous, greedy and repulsive, with black nails and fangs for teeth, and kidnaps small children to make them thieves. Dickens shared a common prejudice of the day, saying that if he had a character who was a fence, he had to be a Jew because "that class of criminal almost invariably was a Jew." Many adaptations try to sidestep Fagin's ethnic identity, or make him more of a comic figure, but his Jewishness is central to his depiction. This nutcracker is one of the more than 900 items in the Katz Ehrenthal Collection of antisemitic artifacts and visual materials.

Conditions Governing Access

No restrictions on access

Conditions Governing Reproduction

No restrictions on use

Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements

Worn, tapered columnar, cast brass, lever nutcracker with both hand grips formed as a man with a flat cap and caricatured Jewish features. He has thick eyebrows, hooded eyes, a large, hooked nose, upturned, fleshy lips, and a long stringy beard. His right index finger rests on his nose, and his left hand holds a sack with coins falling from the bottom. Below this is a banner engraved Fagin. The figural design is smooth on the back and transforms at the waist into a narrow scrollwork column with curled knobs on the bottom sides. The grips are hinged at the top of the head, with Fagin engraved on the bottom center. On the grip interiors are two small cavities and a thick post for cracking nuts. See 2016.184.629 for a similar example.

Subjects

Genre

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.