Poster of a German soldier attacking a Jewish Soviet soldier killing civilians
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 46.000 inches (116.84 cm) | Width: 34.000 inches (86.36 cm)
Creator(s)
- Peter Ehrenthal (Compiler)
Biographical History
The Katz Ehrenthal Collection is a collection of more than 900 objects depicting Jews and antisemitic and anti-Jewish propaganda from the medieval to the modern era, in Europe, Russia, and the United States. The collection was amassed by Peter Ehrenthal, a Romanian Holocaust survivor, to document the pervasive history of anti-Jewish hatred in Western art, politics and popular culture. It includes crude folk art as well as pieces created by Europe's finest craftsmen, prints and periodical illustrations, posters, paintings, decorative art, and toys and everyday household items decorated with depictions of stereotypical Jewish figures.
Archival History
The poster was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2016 by the Katz Family.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of the Katz Family
Funding Note: The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Scope and Content
Antisemitic, anti-Soviet German propaganda poster distributed in contested Polish and Ukrainian war zones between 1941 and 1944. It features a giant German soldier attacking a grotesque, giant Jewish Soviet soldier slaughtering civilians. In September 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union invaded and divided Poland, which included Ukraine, per the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact. On June 22, 1941, Germany broke the pact and invaded the Soviet Union. To frighten and gain the support of the local populations, Germany produced graphic propaganda showing Soviets and Jews committing horrible acts against civilians, especially children and women. It also emphasized the Soviet Union’s role as an aggressor nation advancing the Jewish-Bolshevik conspiracy to control the world. This poster is one of more than 900 items in the Katz Ehrenthal Collection of anti-Semitic visual materials.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
No restrictions on use
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Offset color lithograph poster on light brown paper of an oversized German soldier lunging forward, swinging his rifle butt at an oversized, bare chested, brawny Soviet soldier with the bloody, limp bodies of children, women, and a man in civilian clothes impaled on his bayonet. The square jawed German soldier wears a helmet and green combat fatigues. The other soldier wears a garrison cap with a red Soviet star and red pants, with a bloody sword at his waist. He has exagerrated Jewish features: thick eyebrows, a large, hooked nose, big pointed ears, and red fleshy lips, with monstrous details: hairy arms, long, pointed fingernails, and fangs, and his white breath expels as a long, forked tongue. He is crouching low to the ground and snarling at the German to his left. On the landscape beneath the German is an untouched, bright industrial town. Beneath the Soviet, a town is engulfed by flames against a black background. There is Ukrainian text at the top and bottom.
Subjects
- War in art--Pictorial works.
- Antisemitism--Germany--History--20th century--Posters.
- Nazi propaganda--Posters--Specimens.
- Antisemitism in art.
- Propaganda, Anti-Soviet--Germany.
- Soldiers--Caricatures and cartoons.
- Jews--Caricatures and cartoons.
- Antisemitism--Pictorial works.
- Anti-Jewish propaganda--Germany--20th century--Posters--Specimens.
- World War, 1939-1945--Propaganda--Posters.
Genre
- Posters
- Object