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

Object | Accession Number: 2014.313.1

Overview

Brief Narrative: 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.
Artwork Title: Jewish Bolshevik defending America
Date: publication/distribution: approximately 1943
Geography: publication: Italy
Credit Line: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Alessandra Nacamu
Contributor: Designer: Gino Boccasile

Classification: Posters
Category: Anti-Jewish propaganda
Object Type: Posters, Italian (lcsh)
Physical Description: Offset color lithograph poster on paper with a cartoon of a foregrounded, oversize, husky Jewish man lunging forward with raised fists, right arm extended as though threatening to punch the viewer. He has dark hair, sidelocks, a scruffy mustache, a short beard, and a huge nose. His deepset eyes glare angrily below thick eyebrows and his big, thick lips are turned up in a sinister grin. He wears a brown Bukharian kippah and a black coat with a red Soviet star. He is superimposed over a background of the New York City skyline with the Statue of Liberty. The artist's signature, Boccasile, is printed in the bottom left. It is adhered to cardboard with 2 holes at the top threaded with a red cord.
Dimensions: overall: Height: 11.875 inches (30.163 cm) | Width: 8.750 inches (22.225 cm)
Materials: overall : paper, ink, cardboard, cord, adhesive, adhesive tape

Topical Term: Anti-Jewish propaganda--20th century--Posters--Specimens. Antisemitism--20th century--Pictorial works. Jewish communists--Caricatures and cartoons. Jews--Caricatures and cartoons. Nazi propaganda--Posters. Propaganda, Anti-American--Posters. Propaganda, Anti-communist--Posters. Propaganda, Anti-Soviet--Posters. World War, 1939-1945--Propaganda--Posters.

Legal Status: Permanent Collection
Provenance: The poster was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2014 by Alessandra Nacamu.
Funding Note: The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.