Trade advertisement for the film “Hitler’s Children” (1943)
Extent and Medium
Overall: Height: 12.000 inches (30.48 cm) | Width: 18.625 inches (47.308 cm)
Creator(s)
- RKO Radio Pictures (Production Company)
- RKO Radio Pictures (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
Trade advertisement for the American feature film, “Hitler’s Children,” released by RKO Radio Pictures in January 1943. Movie manufacturers send trade advertisements to exhibitors to increase the distribution of a film to as many theaters as possible. “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
Bifold promotional material printed on off-white paper with printed black text on both the front and back pages, and a double-page advertisement spanning the center leaves. The front and back pages each have four columns of text, containing Hollywood trade news. In the center advertisement, the left leaf features a black-and-white, illustrated scene of a scared, young woman kneeling on the ground with her arms wrapped around a short pillar. Behind her, there is a Nazi officer holding a whip, with his arm raised and ready to strike. In the background are abstract, shadowy silhouettes of figures with arms raised in a Nazi salute, and the sky is shaded in gray. Overlaying the top and bottom of the image are angled, white strips containing red text, and in the bottom left corner is a block of small, black text. The right leaf contains a large, white inset box bearing a block of black text with selected words highlighted in red. In the bottom right corner is a studio logo printed in red ink. The two leaves are torn and separated along the center crease, and there are two sets of staple holes next to the crease. The edges are worn and ragged with several corners missing and losses along the bottom and left sides.
People
- Whitley, Crane.
- Holt, Tim, 1918-1973.
- Warner, H. B. (Henry Byron), 1876-1958.
- Granville, Bonita, 1923-1988.
- Muir, Gavin, 1909-1972.
- Ziemer, Gregor, 1899-1982.
Subjects
- Captivity in motion pictures.
- National socialism in motion pictures.
- Germans in motion pictures.
- Hitler’s children (Motion picture : 1943)
- Germany.
- Women in motion pictures.
- Film adaptations.
- Feature films.
- United States.
- Nazis in motion pictures.
Genre
- Promotional materials.
- Object
- Books and Published Materials