Ceramic figurine of a Jewish man with a boutonniere
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 10.000 inches (25.4 cm)
Creator(s)
- Peter Ehrenthal (Compiler)
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 statue 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
Ceramic figure of a stereotypical Jewish man in dilapidated top hat and suit, wearing a boutonniere. On the pedestal is the phrase: Habn Sie Nicht den Kleinen Cohn gesehn [Have you seen the little Cohn]. The text uses the name “Kleinen Cohn” (sometimes “Kleine Cohn” or “Kohn”) meaning Little Cohn, which was a pejorative term for Jews used in Germany around the turn of the twentieth century. The term is thought to have originated in an 1893 German military pamphlet. It was popularized after German humorist Guido Thielscher sang a satirical song about the character in 1902, and quickly became ubiquitous in Germany. The term, often accompanied by antisemitic images of Jews, was featured on postcards and other ephemera throughout the first decades of the twentieth century. This statue is one of the more than 900 items in the Katz Ehrenthal Collection of antisemitic artifacts and visual materials.r
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
No restrictions on use
People
- Thielscher, Guido.
Subjects
- Antisemitism--Germany--History.
- Stereotypes (Social psychology) in art.
- Antisemitism in art--Germany--20th century.
- Antisemitism in art--Germany--19th century.
- Stereotypes (Social psychology) in art.
- Germany.
- Jews--Caricatures and cartoons.
Genre
- Decorative Arts
- Object