The Eternal Jew (art exhibition)

The Eternal Jew was the title of one of the Nazis in November In 1937 traveling exhibition, which served to further incite the population in the context of anti-Semitic racism ideology.

Course

The exhibition was held from 7th or November 8, 1937 to January 31, 1938 for the first time held in the library of the Deutsches Museum in Munich. On November 8, it was opened by Joseph Goebbels and other Nazi leaders. This propaganda, so-called Big political show was conceived as a traveling exhibition and was shown 2 August to 23 October 1938 in the North Western Railway Hall in Vienna - the opening speech was delivered by Arthur Seyss- Inquart. In the various cities they attracted an average of at least about 5000 visitors per day (a total of 412 300 visitors).

During the German occupation of France, a similar exhibition in occupied France was shown to the Jewish Affairs of the German Embassy in Paris Carltheo Zeitschel from Berlin had requested the support of Walther Wüster.

Content and interpretation

The graphic design of posters and lettering give a characteristic example of the clichéd imagery of anti-Semitic propaganda of the Nazi regime. Using images and photographs, such as Leon Trotsky and Charlie Chaplin, so-called typical " Jewish " features should be emphasized. Furthermore, should, for the time at Propaganda typical cartoons, like the type of East European Jews in caftans with gold coins and sticks in their hands and a world map under his arm, combined with hammer and sickle symbolism, anti -Semitic tendencies with the Bolshevism intertwine, who later became the fifth leaflet the White Rose was criticized by Alexander Schmorell. So conspiracy theories and alleged attempts by the Jews to the Sovietization of Germany were manifold and exaggerated postulated ( see also: Jewish Bolshevism ).

The exhibition, as well as the film of the same, so are the prehistory of the pogroms of November 1938 and the soon following the Holocaust to be expected, since it primarily to serve ideologically to eliminate ultimate moral scruples at the so-called Aryan population and a dehumanization of many later victims that were previously normal fellow citizens of everyday life were prepare by artificial awakening of fear, envy and feelings of hatred. According to police reports, there was a direct link between the exhibition and the increasing number of anti- Semitic attacks.