Newspaper page featuring an advertisement for the film “None Shall Escape” (1944)
Extent and Medium
Overall: Height: 23.250 inches (59.055 cm) | Width: 16.500 inches (41.91 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 advertisement 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
Page removed from a Canadian publication, featuring an advertisement for 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
Rectangular, double-sided page removed from a newspaper, featuring an advertisement for the film, “None Shall Escape.” The page features four columns of black text, images, and advertisements on off-white newsprint. In the center of the page, spanning the bottom two-thirds of the two middle columns is a large, rectangular advertisement, featuring a photographic image of a woman and her oversized shadow. She is standing with her hands behind her back, wearing a black skirt and a long-sleeve blouse that is torn, revealing a camisole beneath. A tagline is printed in large, uppercase text at the top, and a paragraph fills the space to the left of the image. Overlaying the bottom of the image is a repetition of the tagline and a canted, white, rectangle containing an excerpt from a review. The bottom third of the advertisement is filled by the film title in large block lettering, a disembodied hand with a pointed index finger emerging from the center of the title, and a small illustration of a Nazi officer carrying an unconscious woman. Along the bottom edge is text with additional showing details. The edges of the page are yellowed and torn, with several losses, particularly on the right where it was likely torn from the publication.
People
- Morris, Dorothy, 1922-2011.
- Hunt, Marsha, 1917-
- Knox, Alexander.
- Nelson, Ruth, 1905-1992.
- Travers, Henry, 1874-1965.
- Rolf, Erik, 1911-1957.
Subjects
- Holocaust survivors in motion pictures.
- Jewish women in motion pictures.
- Nazis in motion pictures.
- War crime trials--Motion pictures.
- Germans in motion pictures.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), in motion pictures.
- Antisemitism in motion pictures.
- Captivity in motion pictures.
- Political violence in motion pictures.
- United States.
- Poland.
- Discrimination in motion pictures.
- Armed Forces in motion pictures.
Genre
- Promotional materials.
- Object
- Books and Published Materials