Lobby card for the film “Hitler’s Children” (1943)
Extent and Medium
Overall: Height: 11.000 inches (27.94 cm) | Width: 14.000 inches (35.56 cm)
Creator(s)
- RKO Radio Pictures (Distributor)
- RKO Radio Pictures (Production Company)
- 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 lobby card 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
Lobby card for the American feature film, “Hitler’s Children,” released by RKO Radio Pictures in January 1943. Lobby cards are promotional materials placed in theater lobby windows to highlight specific movie scenes, rather than the broader themes often depicted on posters. “Hitler’s Children” was adapted from Gregor Ziemer’s novel, “Education For Death,” which was based on the author’s experiences and observations as the former headmaster of Berlin’s American Colony School. The film focuses on a young American woman in Germany, who denounces Nazi ideology and the state-sanctioned treatment of women as vessels for procreation, and is forced into a labor camp. After running away, she is subjected to public flogging and is eventually executed. The film was one of the first of several films to feature the theme of women persecuted by Nazi Germany. 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
Lobby card printed on rectangular, off-white paper. The card has a white exterior border on all four sides with a large photographic image in the center. The image depicts a scene inside an office, with a large Nazi flag hanging over the window in the background. On the right is a uniformed Nazi officer, standing in front of a table. Standing behind the table are a young, blonde woman in a dark cloak and a bishop wearing a black cassock, rose-colored biretta, and light purple sash. Standing behind them are three uniformed Nazi officers. Framing the bottom of the image is a red border with a narrow white, zig-zag edge. Within the red border is the film title in large, black letters, and inset in the bottom right corner is a canted, white rectangle with blue text. Copyright and printing information is printed in blue text in the bottom margin. On the back of the card is a black ink stamp in the center, and ink transfer from another image. There are pinholes in the corners and small tears along the edges. Depicted: Bonita Granville as Anna Müller, H.B. Warner as The Bishop, Gavin Muir as Nazi Major, others unidentified.
back, center, stamped, black ink : WILLIAM B. BUCKNER / P.O. BOX I / OKAY, OKLAHOMA 74446
People
- Muir, Gavin, 1909-1972.
- Warner, H. B. (Henry Byron), 1876-1958.
- Whitley, Crane.
- Ziemer, Gregor, 1899-1982.
- Holt, Tim, 1918-1973.
- Granville, Bonita, 1923-1988.
Subjects
- Germans in motion pictures.
- Captivity in motion pictures.
- Film adaptations.
- Feature films.
- United States.
- Hitler’s children (Motion picture : 1943)
- Women in motion pictures.
- Germany.
- National socialism in motion pictures.
- Nazis in motion pictures.
Genre
- Object
- Display Cards.
- Posters