Postcard of a Jewish merchant peddling a Christian woman
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 5.875 inches (14.923 cm) | Width: 4.125 inches (10.477 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 object 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
Picutre postcard with the caption: "Ein jüdischer Händler mit Christenflesh" [A Jewish dealer in Christian flesh]. It has a print of two turbaned Sephardic Jews, one a merchant displaying a nude Christian woman, to the other, a potential customer. The postcard 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
Postcard with a monochromatic illustration of a Jewish merchant with hooded eyes, a pointed nose, fleshy lips, and a stringy beard wearing a plumed turban. He is pointing at a naked woman to his left, trying to sell her. She is standing in right profile with her head bowed. Standing opposite, a fat man with a large nose and bushy eyebrows looks at her with hooded eyes, his fleshy lips smiling. He wears a turban and pointed slippers. They are beneath a draped cloth ceiling. There is German text on both sides and a preprinted Imperial eagle on the back.
Subjects
- Jews--Caricatures and cartoons--Germany--19th century.
- Jews in art.
- Antisemitism in art--Germany--19th century.
- Stereotypes (Social psychology) in art.
- Anti-Jewish propaganda--Germany--19th century--Pictorial works.
Genre
- Information Forms
- Object