Czech worker fights against the grifter Poster on the Jewish exploitation of Czech Christian workers
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 35.000 inches (88.9 cm) | Width: 23.250 inches (59.055 cm)
Creator(s)
- Peter Ehrenthal (Compiler)
- Narodni Odborova Ustredna Zamestnanecka (Publisher)
- Karel Relink (Artist)
- Lidova Knihtiskarna, Praha (Printer)
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
Anti-Jewish propaganda poster produced by the Nazi controlled National Central Association of Employees in 1941 in Prague in German occupied Czechoslovakia. It depicts a Czech Christian worker pulling back a curtain to reveal an insolent Jewish businessman taking bags of money. It has a September 1941 police censor's stamp. Germany annexed a Czech border region in fall 1938, and Bohemia and Moravia, which included Prague, in March 1939, and the country ceased to exist. Jews were expelled from professions and organizations, and ostracized from Czech society. Trade unions were abolished in June 1939 and replaced with this Central Association to maintain wartime production. German propaganda incited antisemitism by claiming to reveal the worldwide Jewish conspiracy which enriched itself by stealing from honest Czech laborers. In September 1941, Heydrich became Reich Protector and soon began mass deportations of Jews; only about 11 per cent survived the Holocaust. This poster is one of more than 900 items in the Katz Ehrenthal Collection of anti-Semitic 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 young man in a red workman’s apron holding a mallet and pulling back a tall, red curtain with an outlined Star of David. Behind it is a Jewish businessman in a suit and tie with a hooded eyes, a large nose, with a lit cigar hanging between thick lips, looking insolent and unconcerned at being seen. He holds 2 money bags against his chest and crates and sacks are stacked beside him. There is Czech text at the top and bottom, and the artist's name, K. Relink - 41, in printed in the right corner. On the right is a police censor’s stamp. It is adhered to slightly larger linen backing.
front, right center, stamped, blue ink : Censurováno / Okresní úrad v Jicine / policejni oddeleni / 20. X. 1941 [Censored, District Office in Jicin, Police Department, October 20, 1941]
Subjects
- Labor unions--Czech Republic--Bohemia--Pictorial works.
- Antisemitism--Czech Republic--Bohemia--Posters--Specimens.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Czech Republic.
- World War, 1939-1945--Propaganda, German.
- Jews--Caricatures and cartoons.
- Anti-Jewish propaganda--Czech Republic--Bohemia--Posters--Specimens.
Genre
- Object
- Posters