Poster with a caricature of Stalin praying to a menorah and top hat
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 37.375 inches (94.933 cm) | Width: 33.875 inches (86.043 cm)
pictorial area: Height: 27.750 inches (70.485 cm) | Width: 24.250 inches (61.595 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 of what was likely a newspaper editorial cartoon made in the 1950s for exhibition purposes. It has a Stalin caricature in traditional peasant dress praying before a menorah and a silk top hat like those typically used in depictions of capitalists or upper class gents. The original cartoon would have run in 1941, the year Germany broke the German-Soviet Pact of August 1939 and invaded the Soviet Union, with the participation of Italy, an Axis partner. It employs themes often used by Hitler and in Nazi propaganda efforts warning of the worldwide Jewish capitalist conspiracy and the control of the Bolsheviks and Communists by Jewish cabals. 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 lithograph poster on light brown paper on linen backing with a caricature of Stalin, or a man with a long black mustache and black hair, wearing Soviet peasant dress: a high collared, belted white smock with patches, black pants, and a peaked soldier's cap with a red Soviet star. He stands at a table, hands clasped before him, and leans slightly back, eyes closed and mouth open as if singing or praying. On the table is a 7 branched menorah with burning candles and a shiny, black top hat. The background is white, with an Italian phrase in red ink above the image. At the top of the poster is a red panel with 3 lines of German text.
Subjects
- Anti-Jewish propaganda--Germany.
- Propaganda, Anti-Soviet--Germany--Posters.
- Nazi propaganda--Posters--Specimens.
- World War, 1939-1945--Propaganda, German.
Genre
- Object
- Posters