Poster with a caricature of a fat Jewish banker as a product of Bolshevik revolution
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 38.000 inches (96.52 cm) | Width: 34.250 inches (86.995 cm)
pictorial area: Height: 27.250 inches (69.215 cm) | Width: 23.625 inches (60.008 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
Color poster size version of a Nazi propaganda handbill made in the 1950s for exhibition purposes. It presents a caricatured, obese Jewish capitalist as "the true and only goal of the Bolshevik "World Revolution." The handbill was issued in 1941, the year Germany broke the German-Soviet Pact of August 1938 and invaded the Soviet Union. Hitler and Nazi propaganda efforts often warned of the threat Germany faced from the worldwide Jewish conspiracy and the dominance of Jews in Bolshevik leadership. This poster could be used within Germany to promote the war. The handbill was used in areas of the Soviet Union, such as Ukraine, that were occupied by Germany. In those countries, they encouraged the local population to assist German efforts to eradicate the Jewish population and to be loyal to Germany, and reject the Soviets. 2004.231.1 is a handbill of this poster image that workers were required to post in Ukrainian factories. 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
Color lithographed poster on light brown paper on linen backing with a caricature of an extremely obese Jewish man in a black formal suit nestled among striped and dotted pillows. His head is near the center of the frame, but all that is visible is a grotesquely large curved nose and 2 fleshy lips with 4 teeth showing. He has a thin beard extending from his nearly bald crown to his lips and a double chin. His hands rest near the white bib shirt over his ample stomach. He has rings on both fingers, manicured nails, white cuffs with links, and a big lit cigar. There is a yellow Star of David on his lower mid-section. The pillows adjacent to his head have Hebrew characters. A small round table with a demitasse cup, an aperitif glass, and a box labelled CIGARS sits in the foreground. Above the black and white image is a red panel with German with black and yellow German text; below the image is a black panel with a paragraph of white text.
Subjects
- Antisemitism--History--Germany--20th century.
- Anti-Jewish propaganda--Germany.
- Nazi propaganda--Posters--Specimens.
- Propaganda, Anti-Soviet--Germany--Posters.
- Jews--Caricatures and cartoons.
- World War, 1939-1945--Propaganda, German.
- Jews in art.
Genre
- Posters
- Object