Photographic print of Eleanor Roosevelt promoting the movie “Pastor Hall” (1940)
Extent and Medium
Overall: Height: 5.000 inches (12.7 cm) | Width: 4.000 inches (10.16 cm)
Creator(s)
- United Artists Corporation (Distributor)
- Eastman Kodak Company (Manufacturer)
- Grand National Pictures (Distributor)
- Charter Film Productions (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 photograph 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
Photographic print featuring First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, for the British feature film “Pastor Hall,” released in the United States on September 13, 1940. “Pastor Hall” was an adaptation of the 1938 play written by Ernst Toller, a Prussian Jewish veteran of World War I. After Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany in 1933, Toller was declared an enemy of the state and immigrated to England, and moved again to the United States in 1936. In the film, a Lutheran minister resists the Nazification of German Protestant churches, and is imprisoned in a concentration camp as a result. He manages to escape, but is eventually killed. It equates Hitler with the Antichrist, bent on destroying not only the Jewish people, but Christianity as well. The protagonist is based on Rev. Martin Niemöller, who was arrested in 1936 and sent to Dachau concentration camp. ”Pastor Hall” was brought to the United States by James Roosevelt, son of First Lady Eleanor and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The producers had to cut 5 minutes of the most brutal scenes before it was given approval by the American censors. The First Lady recorded a prologue to the film, informing the American viewers that it was representative of actual events. 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
Black-and-white photograph of Eleanor Roosevelt, with short, curly hair. She wears a striped dress with a large, white collar and bow at the neck. She is seated in a leather armchair, with her hands clasped in her lap, and is positioned slightly off-center, with a large decorative cabinet and vase of flowers in the background. The back of the photograph has a handwritten inscription in pencil. In the center is a large, tilted, red stamp with the photographer’s signature in blue ink. In the bottom right corner is a rectangular white sticker with black text and a barcode.
back, top, handwritten, pencil : Before doing prologue / of movie “Pastor Hall” / July 1940 / Eleanor / Roosevelt back, center, stamped and handwritten, red and blue ink : PM / PHOTOGRAPH BY / Bill Brunk (handwritten) back, bottom right corner, printed on sticker, black ink : JayParrino.com / [barcode] / QL112
People
- Pilbeam, Nova, 1919-2015.
- Goring, Marius, 1912-1998.
- Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962.
- Toller, Ernst, 1893-1939.
- Lawson, Wilfrid, 1900-1966.
- Niemöller, Martin, 1892-1984.
- Hicks, Seymour, 1871-1949.
- Roosevelt, James, 1907-1991.
Corporate Bodies
Subjects
- Great Britain.
- United States.
- Foreign films.
- Nazis in motion pictures.
- Anti-Nazi movement in motion pictures.
- Germans in motion pictures.
- Clergy--Crimes against.
- Political violence in motion pictures.
- Imprisonment in motion pictures.
- Film adaptations.
Genre
- Object
- Publicity photographs.
- Photographs