His Weapons: Democracy, Masonry, Communism, Capitalism Poster of a Jewish man controlling spiders weaving a conspiracy
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 27.250 inches (69.215 cm) | Width: 19.750 inches (50.165 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 poster 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
Antisemitic propaganda poster issued in German occupied Serbia in the fall of 1941 for the Grand Anti-Masonic Exhibition held in Belgrade from October 22, 1941, to January 19, 1942. It features a Jewish man directing spiders with symbols of the Soviet Union, Masonry, and money to weave a conspiracy web. 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. This poster is one of more than 900 items in the Katz Ehrenthal Collection of antisemitic visual materials.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
No restrictions on use
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Offset lithograph poster on light brown paper with the disembodied head of an older Jewish man, tinted orange, emerging from a black background. His raised right hand has threads extending from his fingers to 4 large spiders spinning a circular web with a light orange center. There are 4 superimposed red symbols: a 6 point Star of David on his palm and a Masonic square and compass, a 5 point Soviet star, and dollar sign on separate spiders. The man wears circular framed glasses streaked with light over narrowed eyes and has sparse hair, protruding ears, bushy eyebrows, and a large nose, with his lips pressed together in concentration. There is Serbian text across the bottom. The poster is adhered to slightly larger linen backing.
Subjects
- Anti-Jewish propaganda--20th century--Posters--Specimens.
- Propaganda, Anti-American.
- Antisemitism--Pictorial works.
- Nazi propaganda--Posters.
- Jews--Caricatures and cartoons.
- World War, 1939-1945--Propaganda--Posters.
- Propaganda, Anti-British.
- Antisemitism--Serbia--History--20th century--Posters.
- Propaganda, Anti-Soviet.
Genre
- Object
- Posters