Advertisement for the film “This is the Enemy” (1942)
Extent and Medium
Overall: Height: 8.375 inches (21.273 cm) | Width: 10.875 inches (27.623 cm)
Creator(s)
- Lenfilm Studio (Production Company)
- Ken Sutak (Compiler)
- Artkino Pictures (Distributor)
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
Theater advertisement for the Soviet film, “This Is the Enemy,” released in the United States in July 1942. The film was originally released in two parts in the Soviet Union in August 1941, under the name “Boyevoy Kinosbornik” (Battle Film Collection). It is a propaganda film that begins with Germany breaking their 1939 non-aggression pact and invading the Soviet Union. It is comprised of eight segments, with seven directors and eight writers. At the request of President Roosevelt, a single-film version was released in the United States over the Independence Day weekend. Advertisements for the film showed Germans as pillagers and rapists of Eastern Europe. The marketing attempted to unify the Soviet Union and United States against their common, brutal enemy, Nazi Germany. Following the U.S. entrance into the war seven months prior, restrictions on the dissemination of propaganda loosened, and “This Is the Enemy” served as a precursor to the release of more shocking films that followed. 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, black-and-white promotional material, printed on rectangular, off-white paper with a single-page advertisement on the front, and a double-page advertisement spanning the center leaves when opened. The front page, on the right side of the sheet, features a sketch of a soldier in a Nazi uniform and Stahlhelm (steel helmet), in right profile, depicted from the chest up, with a cigarette between his lips. Arched directly above his head is the film title, and directly below the illustration are several lines of text listing the theater and showing information. The back page, on the left side of the sheet, contains a long list of credits for the film. On the center advertisement, ten square, black-and-white photographic images line the top and bottom edges. The images depict various men and women, shown from the shoulders up. In the center of the left page is printed text, outlining a theater program. On the right page are several paragraphs of text that include a brief synopsis of the film.
Subjects
- History in motion pictures.
- Foreign films.
- Russians in motion pictures.
- Nonfiction films.
- United States.
- Armed Forces in motion pictures.
- Soviet Union.
- International relations in motion pictures.
- War films.
Genre
- Books and Published Materials
- Object
- Promotional materials.