Return to Devil's Island of the Wandering Jew Illustrated newsheet satirizing Dreyfus's return from Devil's Island
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 21.625 inches (54.928 cm) | Width: 14.625 inches (37.148 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 newsheet 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 newsheet cartoon announcing "Le Retour de l'ile du Diable an Juif Errant" [The Return of the Wandering Jew from Devil's Island], the return of Alfred Dreyfus from the notorious French prison on Devil's Island for his second trial in 1899. The five cartoon panels depict Dreyfus in a Cinderella figure, accompanied by a band and mostly Jewish supporters who have sold France's honor and drowned the truth. The Dreyfus Affair was a political scandal revolving around antisemitism that inflamed France in the late 19th century. Dreyfus was an army captain found guilty of treason in 1894 for selling French military secrets. Antisemitic publications used Dreyfus as a symbol of the disloyalty of all French Jews. In 1896, another man was tried and acquitted of the crime. Emile Zola wrote a letter to protest the verdict, titled "J'Accuse," in which he accused the French Army of covering up its unjust conviction of Dreyfus. Zola was charged with libel and the Dreyfus Affair grew into a national political crisis. An Army intelligence officer was found to have forged the document proving Dreyfus's guilt. But in a second trial, despite the traitor's confession, the Army again convicted Dreyfus. On September 9, he was sentenced to Devil's Island for another ten years. The verdict was met with outrage around the world and Dreyfus was offered a pardon by the president to end the crisis, which he accepted. This object 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
People
- Dreyfus, Alfred, 1859-1935--Caricatures and cartoons.
Subjects
- Antisemitism--France--19th century.
- Jews--Persecution--France--19th century.
- France--Politics and government--1870-1940.
- Caricatures and cartoons--Jews--France--19th century.
- Anti-Jewish propaganda--France--19th century--Pictorial works.
- Antisemitism in art--France--19th century.
- French periodicals--19th century.
Genre
- Object
- Posters