The Eternal Jew was an exhibition that opened in the Library of the German Museum in Munich in November 1937. It was an anti- Semitic exhibition that featured photographs and images pointing out the ‘typically Jewish’ features of political figures such as Leon Trotsky, and international film star Charlie Chaplin. The exhibition attracted 412,300 visitors. It moved to Vienna and then to Berlin.
1. What is the artist saying in this image?
2. How does this image support the anti-Semitic views of the German people in 1937?
The Nuremberg Laws were passed in 1935. These laws were designed to ‘protect the pure German blood’. No Jew was allowed to be a citizen of the German state. Jews were not allowed to vote, marry German citizens or own any property. After 1941 they were also required to wear a yellow Star of David on their clothes so that Germans could immediately recognise them.
In 1938 a German diplomat was killed by a Polish Jew named Herschel Grynszpan in Paris. The Nazis took revenge on the night of 9 November. Jewish shops, businesses and synagogues (Jewish places of worship) were attacked and destroyed. More than 90 Jews were killed, hundreds were injured and over 30,000 were arrested and sent to concentration camps. The event became known as Kristallnacht (the Night of Broken Glass) because of all the damage done to the shops. In addition to the horrors of that night, the Jewish community was forced to pay a fine to cover all the damage that had been done. This fine was paid by taking 20% of all Jewish property.
After Kristallnacht, Jewish children were forbidden to attend German schools. 356