Anti-Semitic propaganda poster with pictures of several prominent Jewish figures

Object | Accession Number: 1990.41.16

Overview

Brief Narrative: Anti-Semitic Nazi propaganda poster published in Munich, Germany, and distributed the week of May 27 to June 2, 1942. The text is from a speech that Adolf Hitler gave to the Reichstag on April 26, 1942. The text denounces Jews as the reason that Germany lost World War I, the group that incited the rise of communism, and drove Britain and America to war with Germany. As proof for these claims the poster features pictures of 6 prominent, powerful Jewish men. On the left are two Americans and a Soviet: Bernard Baruch, an advisor to Presidents Wilson and Roosevelt during both World Wars; Felix Frankfurter, an advisor to Presidents Wilson and Roosevelt and a US Supreme Court Justice and Maksim Masimovich Litvinov, a diplomat who sought to ally Soviet Union with the west against Germany before World War I. On the right is an Englishman and two Germans: Leslie Hore-Belisha, a member of Parliament and British secretary of state for war from 1937-40; Walther Rathenau, an industrialist and statesman who served as head of the War Raw Materials Department in the German War Ministry in 1914-15, minister of reconstruction in 1921, and foreign minister in 1922; and Kurt Eisner, a socialist and statesman who opposed German involvement in WWI and organized a Socialist Revolution that overthrew the monarchy in Bavaria in 1918.The captions under these photos label all the men as Jews and the yellow background color of the poster is a similar shade as the Star of David badges Jews were forced to wear in Germany.
Artwork Title: Die Drahtzieher!
Alternate Title: The Masterminds
Series Title: Parole der Woche, Folge 28
Date: publication/distribution: 1942 May 27-1942 June 02
Geography: publication: Munich (Germany)
distribution: Berlin (Germany)
Credit Line: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of the Museum für Deutsche Geschichte
Markings: front, top, printed, black ink : Die Drahzieher! [The Masterminds!]
front, center, printed, black ink : Der Führer sprach am 26. April 1942: / „Die verborgenen Kräfte, die England schon im Jahre 1914 in / den ersten Weltkrieg gehetzt haben, sind Juden gewesen. / Die Kraft, die uns selbst damals lähmte und endlich unter der Parole, / daß Deutschland seine Fahne nicht mehr siegreich nach Hause / tragen dürfe, zur Übergabe zwang, war eine jüdische. Judan / zettelten in unserem Volke die Revolution an und raubten uns / damit jedes weitere Widerstandsvermögen. Juden haben aber / seit 1939 auch das Britische Weltreich in seine gefährliche Krise / hineinmanöveriert. Juden waren die Träger jener bolschewisti- / schen Infektion, die einst Europa zu vernichten drohte. Sie waren / aber auch zugleich die Kriegshetzer in den Reihender Plutokratien. / Ein Kreis von Juden hat einst Amerika gegen alle eigenen / Interessen dieses Landes in den Krieg mit hineingetrieben, / einzig und allein aus jüdisch-kapitalistischen Gesichtspunkten. / Und der Präsident Roosevelt besitzt in Ermangelung / eigener Fähigkeit jenen geistigen Unterstützungstrust, dessen / leitende Männer ich nicht namentlich aufzuführen brauche : / es sind nur Juden!" [The leader spoke on April 26, 1942: „The hidden forces that had driven England into World War I in 1914 were the Jews. The force which paralyzed us even at the time and finally forced us to surrender under the slogan that Germany should no longer be able to carry her flag home victoriously, was a Jewish one. Jews instigated the revolution in our people and robbed us of any further resistance. But since 1939 Jews have also maneuvered the British Empire into its dangerous crisis. Jews were the carriers of that Bolshevik infection that once threatened to destroy Europe. But they were also the warmongers in the line of plutocracy. A circle of Jews drove America into the war against all its own interests, solely from a Jewish-capitalist point of view. And President Roosevelt, in the absence of his own ability, has the intellectual support that I do not have to list by name for his senior men: they are only Jews! "]
front, top left, picture caption, printed, black ink : Der Jude Bernhard Baruch [The Jew Bernhard Baruch]
front, center left, picture caption, printed, black ink : Der Jude Felix Frankfurter [The Jew Felix Frankfurter]
front, bottom left, picture caption, printed, black ink : Der Jude Litwinow-Finkelstein [The Jew Litwinow Finkelstein]
front top right, picture caption, printed, black ink : Der Jude Hore-Belisha [The Jew Hore Belisha]
front, center right, picture caption, printed, black ink : Der Jude Walther Rathenau [The Jew Walther Rathenau]
front, bottom right, picture caption, printed, black ink : Der Jude Eisner-Kosmanowski [The Jew Eisner Kosmanowski]
front, bottom right, top circle, printed, black ink : Verantwortlich für den Inhalt: W Wächter, Berlin. / Verlag franz Eher Nachf., München. [Responsible for the Content: W. Wächter, Berlin. / Publisher Franz Eher Nachf., Munich]
front, bottom right, inside circle, printed, black ink : No.22 Pd/W 1942 / 27.5 2.6.
front, bottom right corner, printed, black ink : 0155
Contributor: Editor: W. Wächter
Publisher: Zentralverlag der NSDAP

Physical Details

Language: German
Classification: Posters
Category: Anti-Jewish propaganda
Object Type: Posters, German (lcsh)
Genre/Form: Posters.
Physical Description: Offset lithograph poster with a yellow background and narrow border printed on white, medium weight paper. In the center, it features 2 paragraphs of German text in bold, black font quoting from a speech. The text is bookended by large, black, bold opening and closing lines. To either side is a column of 3 black and white photographic headshots with captions identifying each man by name and as a Jew. A linen backing has been adhered to the backside. See record 1999.144.2 for another copy of this poster.
Dimensions: overall: Height: 33.250 inches (84.455 cm) | Width: 47.625 inches (120.968 cm)
Materials: overall : paper, ink, linen, adhesive
Inscription: front, bottom left corner, pencil : f 62 / 1783

Rights & Restrictions

Conditions on Access: No restrictions on access
Conditions on Use: No restrictions on use

Keywords & Subjects

Topical Term: Anti-Americanism--Germany--Posters. Anti-Jewish propaganda--Germany--20th century--Posters. Antisemitism--Germany--20th century--Posters. Nazi propaganda--Posters--Germany--Specimens. Propaganda, German--Posters--Specimens. World War, 1939-19845--Propaganda, German.
Geographic Name: Germany--Politics and government--1933-1945--Posters.
Corporate Name: Nazi Party

Administrative Notes

Legal Status: Permanent Collection
Provenance: The poster was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1990 by the Museum für Deutsche Geschichte.
Funding Note: The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.

Record last modified:: 2024-01-16 09:56:38
This page:: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn3945

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