Artwork print for the film “None Shall Escape” (1944)
Extent and Medium
Overall: Height: 10.000 inches (25.4 cm) | Width: 8.250 inches (20.955 cm)
Creator(s)
- Columbia Pictures Corporation (Production Company)
- Columbia Pictures Corporation (Distributor)
- Ken Sutak (Compiler)
Biographical History
The Cinema Judaica Collection consists of more than 1,200 objects relating to films about World War II and the Holocaust as well as Jewish, Israeli, and biblical subjects, from 1923 to 2000, from the United States, Europe, Israel, Canada, Mexico, and Argentina. The collection was amassed by film memorabilia collector Ken Sutak, to document Holocaust-and Jewish-themed movies of the World War II era and the postwar years. The collection includes posters, lobby and photo cards, scene stills, pressbooks, trade ads, programs, magazines, books, VHS tapes, DVDS, and 78 rpm records. Sutak organized these materials into two groups, “Cinema Judaica: The War Years, 1939–1949” and “Cinema Judaica: The Epic Cycle, 1950–1972” and, in conjunction with the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Museum (now the Dr. Bernard Heller Museum in New York), organized exhibitions on these two themes in 2007 and 2008. Sutak subsequently authored companion books with the same titles.
Archival History
The print was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2018 by Ken Sutak and Sherri Venokur.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Ken Sutak and Sherri Venokur
Scope and Content
Photographic print of an illustration advertising the film, “None Shall Escape,” released by Columbia Pictures in 1944. “None Shall Escape” was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Story. The film jumps between a fictionalized post-World War II war crimes trial of a Nazi officer from Poland, and the events leading up to and during the war. The man is embittered after Germany’s defeat in World War I, becomes a follower of Adolf Hitler, rises in the ranks of the Nazi party, and returns to terrorize his home village. The film was inspired by President Franklin Roosevelt’s announcement that the United Nations’ intention of identifying Nazi leaders, and called for them to be tried for war crimes. It not only depicted the Nazi persecution of women, but also their persecution of Jews. The film depicted the mass killing of Jews by German machine gunners, and featured a rabbi as a central character. Although the film was released 15 months before the end of the war, it bore strong parallels to the 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann, following his capture in Argentina by the Israeli Mossad. Unlike the Nuremburg trials, the Eichmann trial featured the testimonies of Holocaust survivors. This object is one of more than 1,200 objects in the Cinema Judaica Collection of materials related to films about World War II and the Holocaust as well as Jewish, Israeli, and biblical themes.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
Restrictions on use. Copyright status is unknown.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Black-and-white illustration printed on white, rectangular photographic paper. The illustration depicts a Nazi officer in uniform, carrying a woman who appears to be unconscious. The officer is slightly hunched, standing on the balls of his feet in a wide stance, as though stopped mid-motion. He has his head turned to the left, with his mouth slightly open in a sneer. The woman is wearing black pumps, a black pencil skirt, and a long sleeved, white blouse that has been torn at the collar. Her head and shoulder-length hair are hanging back downwards, and her left arm is hanging limply downwards. The edges of the print are lightly discolored, and there are stray marks between the man’s feet. Depicted: unidentified
People
- Rolf, Erik, 1911-1957.
- Hunt, Marsha, 1917-
- Morris, Dorothy, 1922-2011.
- Travers, Henry, 1874-1965.
- Nelson, Ruth, 1905-1992.
- Knox, Alexander.
Subjects
- Political violence in motion pictures.
- Poland.
- Armed Forces in motion pictures.
- Captivity in motion pictures.
- Holocaust survivors in motion pictures.
- Germans in motion pictures.
- Antisemitism in motion pictures.
- War crime trials--Motion pictures.
- United States.
- Jewish women in motion pictures.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), in motion pictures.
- Discrimination in motion pictures.
- Nazis in motion pictures.
Genre
- Reproductive prints.
- Art
- Object