Nervous Warriors Satiric print of Jewish men orchestrating the war
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 12.375 inches (31.433 cm) | Width: 16.500 inches (41.91 cm)
Creator(s)
- Stinnes Company (Publisher)
- Kladderadatsch (Publisher)
- A. Hofmann & Comp. (Publisher)
- 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 print 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
Reprint of an illustration, Nervous Warriors, from a pro-Nazi Party magazine, Kladderadatsch, of caricatured Jewish men waging war with a minefield of chamberpots and weapons consisting of newspapers and musical instruments. It was published in a 1944 issue of Kladderadatsch, an illustrated satirical magazine issued in Berlin, Germany, from 1848-1944. The magazine was a popular success with the middle class from the start, and like its audience, grew more conservative over the years. Under editor Paul Warncke (1909-1933), it was strongly nationalistic, praising Hitler for his patriotism after the 1923 Munich Putsch. It grew increasingly antisemitic, and was an energetic supporter of Hitler and the Nazi Party. This print 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
Print of an illustration depicting 1 side of a battlefield with caricatured Jewish males directing unseen forces. Most of the men have dark curly hair, fleshy lips, and prominent noses, and many wear suits and eyeglasses. They are grouped behind a front line of steaming chamberpots. The center line consists of giant fountain pens held like rifles by very short men in a trench. On the right, a man with a film camera and 1 with a kite stand near 2 men beating a large drum. The rearguard is the artillery, consisting of enormous rolled up newspapers and phonograph horns emitting quacking ducks. In the back left, a man in working clothes walks toward the battle carrying bulging sacks of money. The print is torn and stained and in a brown wooden frame under glass.
Subjects
- Anti-Jewish propaganda--Germany--Periodicals.
- Antisemitism--Germany--Pictorial works.
- Jews--Caricatures and cartoons.
- World War, 1939-1945--Art and the war.
- German wit and humor, Pictorial.
- Political satire, German--Periodicals.
- Germany--Politics and government--Caricatures and cartoons.
- Antisemitism in art--Germany--20th century.
Genre
- Art
- Object