Six clips from an anti-Jewish Nazi propaganda film

Identifier
irn1004360
Language of Description
English
Alt. Identifiers
  • 2009.244.1
  • RG-60.4861
Dates
1 Jan 1940 - 31 Dec 1940
Level of Description
Item
Languages
  • German
Source
EHRI Partner

Creator(s)

  • Veit Harlan (Director)
  • Otto Lehmann (Producer)
  • Eberhard Moeller (Producer)
  • Bundesarchiv (Germany). Filmarchiv

Scope and Content

01:12:05 to 01:12:20 Onlookers watch as Jews with horse-drawn carts full of belongings enter Stuttgart after Suess has convinced the Duke to reverse the ban and allow them into the city. A man leading a horse sings the song Shir Hagamal (Song of the Camel). This and many other scenes in the movie were filmed in Prague and Harlan coerced some Jews into performing in this scene and in a later scene set in a synagogue. [This information comes from Susan Tegel's article - see Notes field for citation]. 01:12:26 to 01:12:39 Suess pulls a frightened Dorothea away from the curtain by the window in his bedroom. He pushes her onto the bed and looms over her. [Dorothea has come to beg the Duke to release her husband and her father, who have both been arrested. The Duke is out of town so Dorothea asks Suess instead. Suess arranges for Dorothea to hear the sounds of her husband being tortured and then promises to release him if (it is implied) she will sleep with him]. 01:12:45 to 01:13:00 CU of Dorothea as she runs, clearly upset by what has just happened to her. 01:13:03 to 01:13:18 Faber, accompanied by a crowd of townspeople, carries Dorothea's body to the door of the palace and yells, "Jude! Jude!" Suess's secretary, Levy, appears at the window. (Dorothea has drowned herself after being raped by Suess). 01:13:21 to 01:13:48 Faber lays Dorothea's body down at the door of the palace and puts his head on her chest in grief. 01:13:51 to 01:15:41 Suess, his beard and hair grown out again, stands barefoot in ragged clothing beside a metal cage at the gallows. He almost faints as his sentence is read: he must be hanged for defiling a Christian girl. Snow falls and the whole town has come out to watch the hanging. Suess pleads for his life by saying that he was only serving the Duke and offering money if he is allowed to live. The camera rises with the cage as it is raised high above the square before the floor is released. Zoom in to a CU on Faber's face. The council member who read Suess's sentence says that all Jews must leave the district of Wuertemberg within three days and that he hopes that future generations will adhere to this ban for the sake of their children and their children's children.

Conditions Governing Reproduction

Copyright Holder: Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Stiftung

Note(s)

  • The excerpt from R. 5 is a total of 73 meters long. The Bundesarchiv documentation must be checked to confirm that these clips all belong to R. 5.

  • Plot synopsis: The newly installed Duke of the Duchy of Wuerttemberg, Karl Alexander (played by Heinrich George), needs money to buy jewels for his wife and to pay for other costly items. He sends his adviser to ask for help from Joseph Suess Oppenheimer (Ferdinand Marian), a Jew who lives in Frankfurt. Suess agrees to help the Duke only if he is allowed to deliver the jewels in person, which he cannot legally do since Jews are barred from entering the city of Stuttgart. The adviser arranges false papers for Suess and Suess shaves his beard and wears courtly clothing. On the way to Stuttgart he meets Dorothea Sturm (Kristina Soederbaum), a Christian girl who is the daughter of the head of the Duke's council and who is betrothed to the council secretary. Little by little Suess gains more power until he convinces the Duke, who is now deeply in debt to Suess, to dissolve the council and allow Suess to do whatever he likes in the name of the Duke. He arrests Dorothea's father and husband and rapes the girl, who drowns herself. The Duke dies of a heart attack, removing the last protection for Suess, who is hanged by the citizens of Stuttgart for defiling an Aryan girl. The Jews, who have been allowed to enter Stuttgart while Suess was in power, are expelled once again. The film has obvious references to Nazi policy and goals. This plot summary provides only enough information to make sense of the clips and some key points in the story may be omitted. For further information and analysis of this film see "The Demonic Effect": Veit Harlan's Use of Jewish Extras in Jud Suess (1940) in Holocaust and Genocide Studies 2000 14 (2): 215-241.

  • Leslie Swift, Special Advisor, Time-Based Media, in response to a German institution who claimed that we do not have permission to publicly stream the following films, requested that their access permissions be changed to On Campus only. I have applied Access statement A2. The copyright and conditions of use statements have been changed to show: Copyright Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Stiftung Conditions on Use Contact Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Stiftung at footage@murnau-stiftung.de for permission to reproduce and use this film. RG-60.1167-1172 (already on-campus only) RG-60.1175-1179 RG-60.1201-1204 RG-60.4858-4861

Subjects

  • PROPAGANDA (NAZI)
  • PROPAGANDA
  • HANGINGS
  • ANTISEMITISM
  • PROPAGANDA (ANTI-JEWISH)
  • JEWS

Places

  • Prague, Czechoslovakia
  • Stuttgart, Germany

Genre

This description is derived directly from structured data provided to EHRI by a partner institution. This collection holding institution considers this description as an accurate reflection of the archival holdings to which it refers at the moment of data transfer.

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