Ewige Jude, Der (1940)

Director:

Fritz Hippler

Writer:

Eberhard Taubert (writer)

Release Date:

28 November 1940 (Germany)

Genre:

Documentary | Drama

Plot:

The Jews of Poland (invaded by Germany in 1939) are depicted as filthy, evil, corrupt, and intent on world domination...

Plot Keywords:

Ethnic Hatred | Racism | Hate | Demagogy | Nazi Propaganda

Cast

Curt Bois	...	Himself (archive footage)
Charles Chaplin	...	Himself (1931) (archive footage)
Albert Einstein	...	Einstein (archive footage)
Adolf Hitler	...	Himself (speaking at Reichstagssitzung) (archive footage)
Fritz Kortner	...	Himself (archive footage)
Peter Lorre	...	Himself (archive footage)
Ernst Lubitsch	...	Himself (archive footage)
Rosa Luxemburg	...	Herself (archive footage)
Mona Maris	...	Herself
Anna Sten	...	Herself (archive footage)

Also Known As:

Filmbeitrag zum Problem des Weltjudentums, Ein (Germany) (subtitle)
The Eternal Jew (International: English title)

Runtime:

USA:62 min

Country:

Germany

Language:

German

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Germany:(Banned) (1945) | Portugal:(Banned) (original rating)

Filming Locations:

Lódz, Poland

Company:

Deutsche Filmherstellungs- und -Verwertungs- GmbH, Berlin (DFG)

Trivia:

The scene at the end of M - in which Peter Lorre, as a child murderer is judged by a jury of other criminals - was added into The Eternal Jew, because Lorre is Jewish and Hitler felt this proved the criminal mind of the Jew.

Quotes:

Narrator: The Torah scroll is rolled to the place to be read. What sort of "truths" does it teach?

Movie Connections:

Featured in Film as a Subversive Art: Amos Vogel and Cinema 16 (2003)

Soundtrack:

Toccata und Fuge in D-Moll

Raw cruelty on film.

A film used to "educate" the German public on the "danger" allegedly posed by the Jews, this film does all it can to paint Jews as subhuman (or better, anti-human) monstrosities.

Randall Bytwerk points-out in his biography of Nazi leader Julius Streicher (an excellent book which is much more about anti-Jewish propaganda techniques than it is a biography) that it was impossible for the Nazis to actually make the mass of Germans actively hate their Jewish fellow citizens. Bytwerk argues that the propaganda machinery focused on the idea of making Jews seem so wretched, disgusting and hateful that they would appear to be beings simply not worth caring about. This film, it seems to me, takes that as its motivation.

There is one interesting moment that hurts the filmmakers' cause: the camera panning over the crowds in the ghetto, when a group of Jewish youngsters are shown plainly trying to look over one another's shoulders and heads, grinning at the camera. Such moments would remind the average person that these were plainly people like anyone you might know.

Overall, however, the Berlin Gestapo reported that audience reaction to this film was "highly favorable," particularly the scenes equating Jews with disease-spreading rodents.