Slaves to the Star Poster of a Jew controlling Allied powers in a Star of David
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 42.375 inches (107.633 cm) | Width: 30.500 inches (77.47 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 has a cartoon of an Orthodox Jewish man holding a Star of David enclosing caricatures or symbols of Stalin, the US, and England. The exhibition 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 color lithograph poster on light brown paper with the caricature of an old Orthodox Jewish man holding an oversized yellow Star of David against a gradient red background. He wears a black skullcap with a Star of David and has curled sidelocks and a long white beard, a large nose, and thick lips parted in a nearly toothless grimace. Within the Star are cartoons figures, representing the Allied powers. A large man in a green uniform, Stalin, with a big red nose, black hair, unibrow, and mustache, balances 2 figures symbolizing the US and England on his shoulders. On the right is Uncle Sam, in a red, white, and blue suit, passing a doll sized man with a pacifier in a green uniform with curl toed slippers to John Bull, who resembles Churchill, in a red riding habit and white jodhpurs. In Stalin's pocket is a miniature, naked man with a Soviet sickle and hammer. Below the Star are the ruins of a bombed out city engulfed in flames and smoke. There is Serbian text in the points of the star. The poster is adhered to slightly larger linen backing.
People
- Churchill, Winston, 1874-1965--Caricatures and cartoons.
- Stalin, Joseph, 1878-1953--Caricatures and cartoons.
Subjects
- John Bull (Symbolic character)
- World War, 1939-1945--Propaganda--Posters.
- Antisemitism--Pictorial works.
- Jews--Caricatures and cartoons.
- Antisemitism--Serbia--History--20th century--Posters.
- Anti-Jewish propaganda--20th century--Posters--Specimens.
- Uncle Sam (Symbolic character)
- Nazi propaganda--Posters.
Genre
- Object
- Posters