Eradication of the sick and weak in nature Instructional poster showing the elimination of the weak from nature
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 11.500 inches (29.21 cm) | Width: 15.250 inches (38.735 cm)
Creator(s)
- Alfred Vogel (Author)
- Verlag fur nationale Literatur Gebr. Rath (Publisher)
- Eberhard Brauchle (Illustrator)
Archival History
The poster was acquired by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1990.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection
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
Educational poster showing that in nature, plants and animals who are not strong enough or are deformed and unhealthy will or should be killed. It is from a portfolio of teaching panels designed by Alfred Vogel, a school headmaster and Nazi Party member, to instruct students on the superiority of the Aryan race, the virtue of racial purity, and the burden that Jews, as well as the handicapped, mentally ill, and unfit, place on society. For Hitler's government, the indoctrination of children through the required teaching of Nazi ideology was a powerful tool. The teaching of eugenics and racial biology began in primary school. Vogel's series provided illustrated aids on its key aspects, showing in simple pictures the urgency of the Jewish threat, the danger of racial miscegenation, or mixing of races, and how the pure breed will always be strongest, and mixed breeds must be eliminated.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
No restrictions on use
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Poster printed on cardstock with the title in Fraktur font across the top. There are 2 vertical side by side color illustrations. The left image depicts a red-eyed, sharp beaked, red-brown hawk with striped tail feathers with its talons on a dead rabbit arched over a tree branch with leafy branches at the end. In the background is a clear blue sky with green foliage from the tree canopy. The right image depicts a man with gray hair, brown pants, and blue shirt with a large ax raised over his head as he prepares to chop down a crooked, sparsely orange leaved, dead tree. He stands in yellow grass in front of a forest of green fir trees with a gray blue sky. This poster is no. 42 in Vogel's series, and 1 of 9 in collection 1990.120.
Subjects
- Race--Study and teaching--Germany--Posters.
- National socialism and education--Posters.
- Genetic engineering--Germany--Posters.
- Eugenics--Posters.
- Germany--Race relations--Study and teaching--Posters.
- Heredity--Pictorial works.
Genre
- Posters
- Object