The justification of the Jew, Joseph Süss Oppenheimer, Birth, Life, and Death Engraved color vignettes on the life and death of Jud Süss Oppenheimer
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 16.750 inches (42.545 cm) | Width: 13.250 inches (33.655 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 print 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
Engraved print with color pictures and text telling the story of the rise and fall of Joseph Süss Oppenheimer (1698-1738), circulated not long after the events. Oppenheimer, known as Joseph or Jud Süss, was a Jewish banker who administered the finances of Duke Karl Alexander of Wurttemberg, enriching the Duke and himself. Others were envious and resentful of his success, feelings increased by his actions, such as granting contracts to Jews and easing settlement restrictions. When the Duke died unexpectedly in March 1737, Oppenheimer was arrested, tried for fraud and treason, and sentenced to death. A huge crowd watched the hanging and the body was left hanging in public for six years. In 1939, a film, Jud Süss, was produced by Goebbels's Nazi Propaganda Ministry. The inflammatory, antisemitic film portrayed Jew Süss as a grotesquely exaggerated, greedy, unscrupulous Jewish businessman who rapes a non-Jewish woman. The film was a major success throughout Europe. The print is one of 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
Print of an engraving with 6 color illustrations in the top third and black Fraktur text in the remainder. In the top corners are 2 portraits in oval frames. On the left is a portrait of a man wearing a white periwig, red courtier's jacket with gold brocade, and a blue cape over his left shoulder. He is viewed from the waist up in three quarter profile, against a black background. Below the yellow frame is a banner with Joseph Süß Oppenheimer. On the far right is a portrait of a white moustached man in a blue hat with a red feather, a red robe with white fur, and a gold brocade vest, depicted in three quarters left profile from the waist up, against a black background. Below the brown frame is a banner with Jörg, Kongüer Herr zit ?rlhoff und Grobelchitz A: 1597. AEt. 24. Adjacent to the right side of this is an oval yellow frame filled with Fraktur text. Below each portrait are 2 sqaures with illsutrations. The left square depicts blue sphere with a man draped in a red cloth seated at the top. He holds his arms out on each side toward 2 men in red frock coats falling off the sphere. Three people recline on the ground below, and in the background is a gallows on blocks and text. In the right square are 2 stacked scenes: at the top is a man in a horsedrawn carriage, accompanied by 4 people and 2 dogs, riding ot the right in a country landscape. At the bottom is man in a tumbril, accompanied by uniformed soldiers with pikes, riding to the left in a country landcape. Filling the center is a gallows on 4 tall tripod supports resting on a platform of blocks. At the top is a horizontal pole with an orange wire cage with a man in red frock coat suspended at the end. Five black crows fly near or rest on it. In the top joint is a sign with Fraktur text. In the bottom two thirds of the sheet is a alrge block of Fraktur text, a horizontal line, then 2 column, each with 13 sets of 2 line stanzas.
People
- Suss-Oppenheimer, Joseph, 1698 or 1699-1738--Pictorial works.
Subjects
- Antisemitism--Germany--History--18th century--Pictorial works.
- Antisemitism in art.
- Anti-Jewish propaganda--Germany--History--18th century--Pictorial works.
- Court Jews--Persecution--Germany--Wurttemberg.
- Jewish capitalists and financiers--Pictorial works.
- Jews--Persecution--Germany--History--18th century--Pictorial works.
- Jewish bankers--Pictorial works.
Genre
- Art
- Object