Argentine One Sheet poster for the film “None Shall Escape” (1944)
Extent and Medium
Overall: Height: 41.000 inches (104.14 cm) | Width: 27.000 inches (68.58 cm)
Creator(s)
- Columbia Pictures Corporation (Production Company)
- Columbia Pictures Corporation (Distributor)
- Morgan Litho Company (Printer)
- 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 poster 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
Spanish-language, Argentinian poster advertising 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
Illustrated poster printed on off-white, rectangular paper with a narrow margin on all four sides. In white at the top are two lines of a tagline printed in Spanish. Directly below is an illustration of a blonde woman, wearing a red blouse and green scarf, pointing at a scowling man in a brown uniform with a swastika patch, leaning on a half-wall. The background is mottled in green and blue with some gray shadowing. Directly below the image of the man is a smaller-scale, abstract sketch of soldiers in front of a town skyline. The sketch tops a black, shadowy area overlaid by the film title, printed in large, yellow block lettering. Emerging from the center of the title is a large, disembodied hand, pointing to the right. In the lower right corner is a small-scale illustration of a hunched Nazi officer in uniform, carrying a woman who appears to be unconscious. Spanning the bottom of the poster is a narrow, bright blue border, containing the film stars’ names and the credits, printed in white. Copyright and printing information is printed in the bottom margin. The poster is creased into eight parts, with tears and holes along the creases. The edges of the poster are torn and discolored, with pinholes in the corners and small bits of tape on the back, along the edges.
back, bottom, cursive script, red colored pencil : Deudas im-/ perdonables [Unforgivable Debts] back, center, handwritten and cursive script, pencil and red colored pencil : DEUDAS / IMPERDONABLES / COLUMBIA / Span 15 / N/44 / Deudas imperdonables [Unforgivable Debts Columbia / Unforgivable Debts]
People
- Travers, Henry, 1874-1965.
- Knox, Alexander.
- Nelson, Ruth, 1905-1992.
- Hunt, Marsha, 1917-
- Rolf, Erik, 1911-1957.
- Morris, Dorothy, 1922-2011.
Subjects
- War crime trials--Motion pictures.
- Armed Forces in motion pictures.
- Jewish women in motion pictures.
- Holocaust survivors in motion pictures.
- Political violence in motion pictures.
- Nazis in motion pictures.
- United States.
- Discrimination in motion pictures.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), in motion pictures.
- Poland.
- Captivity in motion pictures.
- Germans in motion pictures.
- Antisemitism in motion pictures.
Genre
- Posters
- Object
- Posters.