The English Juda’s Kiss Poster of a Jewish man kissing a Russian peasant's cheek
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 has a drawing of a Jewish man kissing the cheek of an innocent looking peasant while a man resembling Stalin looks on approvingly. The title refers to the betrayal of Jesus by Judas Iscariot. Nazi Germany had been at war with Britain since 1939, but were allied with the Soviet Union until the German June 1941 invasion. To support that expansion of the war, they produced propaganda linking Great Britain and the Soviet Union as joint members of the Jewish conspiracy. 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 color lithograph poster on light brown paper with a dark shaded drawing with yellow accents of 3 men. On the left is a bearded man with a huge nose and his head draped in a Star of David covered cloth holding a pouch near his shoulder. With closed eyes, he leans right and, with fleshy puckered lips, kisses the cheek of an innocent looking man in a Russian style peasant cap. This man looks at the Jew with wide, surprised eyes and he leans away to the left. Looming in the dark background behind them is a large man with narrow glinting eyes and a sinister expression. He is leaning toward them, watching with his arm resting on a large axehead. There is a yellow border and red Serbian text across the bottom. The poster is adhered to slightly larger linen backing.
People
- Stalin, Joseph, 1878-1953--Caricatures and cartoons.
Subjects
- Antisemitism--Serbia--History--20th century--Posters.
- Jews--Caricatures and cartoons.
- Antisemitism--Pictorial works.
- Anti-Jewish propaganda--20th century--Posters--Specimens.
- Nazi propaganda--Posters.
- World War, 1939-1945--Propaganda--Posters.
Genre
- Posters
- Object