The Masterminds Anti-Semitic propaganda poster with pictures of several prominent Jewish figures
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 33.250 inches (84.455 cm) | Width: 47.625 inches (120.968 cm)
Creator(s)
- W. Wächter (Editor)
- Zentralverlag der NSDAP (Publisher)
Archival History
The poster was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1990 by the Museum für Deutsche Geschichte.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of the Museum für Deutsche Geschichte
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-Semitic Nazi propaganda poster published in Munich, Germany, and distributed the week of May 27 to June 2, 1942. The text is from a speech that Adolf Hitler gave to the Reichstag on April 26, 1942. The text denounces Jews as the reason that Germany lost World War I, the group that incited the rise of communism, and drove Britain and America to war with Germany. As proof for these claims the poster features pictures of 6 prominent, powerful Jewish men. On the left are two Americans and a Soviet: Bernard Baruch, an advisor to Presidents Wilson and Roosevelt during both World Wars; Felix Frankfurter, an advisor to Presidents Wilson and Roosevelt and a US Supreme Court Justice and Maksim Masimovich Litvinov, a diplomat who sought to ally Soviet Union with the west against Germany before World War I. On the right is an Englishman and two Germans: Leslie Hore-Belisha, a member of Parliament and British secretary of state for war from 1937-40; Walther Rathenau, an industrialist and statesman who served as head of the War Raw Materials Department in the German War Ministry in 1914-15, minister of reconstruction in 1921, and foreign minister in 1922; and Kurt Eisner, a socialist and statesman who opposed German involvement in WWI and organized a Socialist Revolution that overthrew the monarchy in Bavaria in 1918.The captions under these photos label all the men as Jews and the yellow background color of the poster is a similar shade as the Star of David badges Jews were forced to wear in Germany.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
No restrictions on use
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Offset lithograph poster with a yellow background and narrow border printed on white, medium weight paper. In the center, it features 2 paragraphs of German text in bold, black font quoting from a speech. The text is bookended by large, black, bold opening and closing lines. To either side is a column of 3 black and white photographic headshots with captions identifying each man by name and as a Jew. A linen backing has been adhered to the backside. See record 1999.144.2 for another copy of this poster.
front, bottom left corner, pencil : f 62 / 1783
Corporate Bodies
- Nazi Party
Subjects
- Germany--Politics and government--1933-1945--Posters.
- Propaganda, German--Posters--Specimens.
- Antisemitism--Germany--20th century--Posters.
- Nazi propaganda--Posters--Germany--Specimens.
- Anti-Jewish propaganda--Germany--20th century--Posters.
- World War, 1939-19845--Propaganda, German.
- Anti-Americanism--Germany--Posters.
Genre
- Posters.
- Posters
- Object