Demented Nazi Fears

Both The Eternal Jew and Jew Suss require the audience to agree with a set of antisemitic assumptions that are needed in order to enjoy the films. The films attempt to portray themselves as historically proven movies that should not be questioned but taken seriously. In the beginning of Jew Suss a disclaimer admits that the following film is based on true events and the Eternal Jew attempts the appearance of a documentary. However, these films aid us in understanding what the Nazi view of Judaism was in 1940 and what their greatest fears were. Both films assume that the viewer already feels that Jews are inherently bad people who are not to be trusted. The world of Jew Suss begins with a pre-existing law that Jews are not allowed in the city and The Eternal Jew attempts to link the depression with a Jewish banking plot. The Nazi regime seemed to fear both an external and internal Jewish threat. The films make it abundantly clear that measures must be taken in order to preserve the German Volk from these threats to racial purity and survivability. Jew Suss points to the Nazi fear of a Jew gaining significant amounts of internal political power and squeezing the populace dry through taxes, a direct illustration of the regimes successful connection of Germany's post WWI economic problems with a Jewish banking plot. Additionally, The Eternal Jew claims that the Jews are responsible for every major medical and economic disaster the German people have ever seen. Given that Jew Suss was a very successful film the German people appeared to share the fear of a Jewish plot against the Reich and the inherent evil in the mixing of Jews and non-Jews sexually. Through these assumptions, Jew Suss successfully achieves the goal of propaganda by asking the German people to agree with these antisemitic claims in order to enjoy the intriguing plot of the film.