Background:These are eight of the 265 photographs in a
book called The Eternal Jew, published by the Nazi Party's publishing
house in 1937. The book consists entirely of photographs with brief captions.
The photos generally make Jews look as unpleasant as possible. Material
along these lines prepared the way for the Holocaust. After years of being
told that Jews were vermin, it became easier for Germans to accept what
they would have rejected in 1933.
The source: Der Ewige Jude, Munich: Zentralverlag der NSDAP.,
Franz Eher, Nachf., 1937).
The Eternal
Jew
This is the book's cover, symbolically presenting many of
the arguments against Jews. The ugly Jew is holding part of Russia
under his arm, branded with the hammer and sickle. One hand holds
a whip. The other hand holds bloody coins.
Caption: "Eastern Jewish districts develop... What Kant
called "a nation of cheaters" moved to the promised land
of Germany. Every day newspapers (even those not hostile to the Jews)
report the dishonest dealings of Eastern Jews. The cleverness of Jewish
criminality is astonishing. Just as astonishing is the patience with
which the threatened population put up with these criminal activities."
(p. 16)
Caption: "In Europe's capitals. The Jews have
a self-chosen ghetto in Berlin around Grenadier and Dragoner
Streets. Only the height of its buildings separate it from his
Eastern models. It's the genuine article: the same unpleasant
creatures, the same Hebraic shop signs, the same masses of playing
children, the same bad smells and piles of filth." (p. 17)
Caption: "Grenadier Street. In this Jewish district
of Berlin, a German feels as if he is in enemy territory. He
is watched, surrounded, followed. A half dozen Hebrew newspapers
are printed. Here the police uncover breeding grounds of criminal
and political vermin." (p. 18)
Caption: "Neanderthalic art. In sculpture even more
than painting, Jews display their absolute lack of talent. To get
the attention that their vanity demands, they turn primitive. Here,
Jacob Epstein-London looks thoughtfully at his disgusting work of
a pregnant idiot (1931), which he calls 'Genesis' (birth)." (p.
51)
Caption: "Charlie Chaplin and Jackie Coogan. The Galician
Charlie Chaplin (whose mother was born Thonstein) emigrated to America.
Along with Jackie Coogan, who also came from the East (Jacob Cohen),
their tear-jerking comedy makes poverty both pitiable and laughable,
reaching the tear ducts of the innocent viewers. The slapstick gang
of this flat-footed, clumsy, impoverished yet eternally generous man
with the huge shoes was a sensation for the non-Jews. Flat-footed
but noble — that is Charlie Chaplin's formula." (pp. 67-68)
Caption: "The Jew in his element: With Blacks in a Parisian
night club. The Jew bring people the glittering world of perversion
as a way of unnerving and enslaving them. He seems to worry as little
about it as the rats worry about the plague they carry." (p.
97)
Caption:" A picture of German economic life in 1930:
Each column shows a branch of the German economy, The figure to the
left shows the total number of companies. The number of Jewish firms
is shown by the black bar, the non-Jewish by the white bar. When one
remembers that according to the 1925 census there were 'only' about
555,000 religious Jews in Germany — which means by a generous
estimate no more than a million Jews by blood in 1930, there are 60
to 100 Germans for each Jew. This makes clear what it means when,
for example, up to 60% of the German economy is led by Jews."
(p. 36)
