Poster of a Jewish Bolshevik bully shaking his fists in defense of NYC

Anti-Semitic, anti-American Nazi propaganda poster issued in German occupied Italy ca. 1943, with a cartoon of a Jewish Bolshevik shaking his fists at all comers. The threat of the Jewish Bolshevik or Judeo-Communist conspiracy was a cornerstone of Nazi Party ideology. The 1917 Communist revolution that brought down the Russian Empire shocked the world. The prominence of Jews in the Bolshevik leadership fueled this imaginary merger of international conspiracies between the Communists and the Jews to destroy civilization and take over the world. In July 1943, Allied forces invaded Sicily. Mussolini was arrested by his own government and, in September, Italy unconditionally surrendered to the Allies. Germany then occupied north and central Italy, launching an offensive that confined Allied troops in the south for 20 months. The German SS launched systematic deportations of Jews and engaged in severe reprisals against Italian partisans and civilians. The Allies broke the stalemate in late spring 1944. The war ended with Germany's surrender in May 1945. This poster is one of more than 900 items in the Katz Ehrenthal Collection of antisemitic visual materials.