Holocaust

Der Ewige Jude

A book, film, and exhibition denigrating Jews on a massive scale in the late 1930s and early '40s.

Der Ewige Jude (“The Eternal Jew”), an anti-Jewish book published by the Nazi Party publishing house (Zentralverlag der DSDAP), is emblematic of the Nazis' campaign to dehumanize the Jewish people. The book contained more than 250 hideous photographs and denigrading captions designed to promote anti-Judaism.

But it didn't stop with the book: Der Ewige Jude "went viral," becoming a faux documentary and a traveling exhibition, all heavily advertised via items as small as postal stamps and as large as building-spanning banners. The faux documentary is despicable, frame for frame, with highlights including the comparison of Jewish people to disease-carrying rats, “alien”-like caricatures of the Eastern European Jewish culture, and footage of Hitler’s infamous January 1939 Reichstag Speech promising the “annihilation of the Jewish race” in Europe.

Important Moments

1937
The Der Ewige Jude book is published by the Nazi party publishing house, and the corresponding exhibition opens in Munich, presenting Jews through dehumanizing imagery and pseudoscience to justify exclusion and hatred.
1940
The propaganda film Der Ewige Jude is released, translating exhibition themes into widely distributed cinema that portrays Jews as dangerous and subhuman.
1937-1938
The exhibition travels to multiple cities across Germany and Austria, drawing millions of visitors and reinforcing antisemitic narratives through visuals, charts, and staged comparisons.
1940-on
Images and ideas from Der Ewige Jude become embedded in Nazi media, education, and public consciousness, helping normalize anti-Judaism in everyday life.

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