Jew Suss and The Eternal Jew

Jew Suss and the Eternal Jew are both very clearly anti-semitic films. Both depart from the more disguised propaganda of the films we've seen previously. Jew Suss, however, made its anti-semitic messages much more palatable than The Eternal Jew, which hits the viewer over the head with these messages (something Goebbels had claimed he wanted to avoid). I think making Oppenheimer an unlikable character, not simply an unlikable "Jew", is what made Jew Suss more more accepted and less clearly propagandistic than The Eternal Jew. Although Jew Suss stresses Oppenheimers Jewishness and it is clearly seen as a very negative trait, and possibly the cause of his cruelness and deceitfulness, he is a dislikable character in other respects as well. As viewers we're not told to dislike Oppenheimer, but we start to hate him and want other characters to turn against him and successfully eliminate him, because of his actions not because he is Jewish. The Eternal Jew on the other hand is much broader in its depictions of Jews. There are no characters to relate to, no people to side with, no one person to turn against. I think the public had a harder time accepting this film because the messages were all too clear and it was too forceful. 

As historical artifacts, Jew Suss and The Eternal Jew operate completely differently. The Eternal Jew is a clear and simple representation of the potent evil contained within Nazi anti-semitism. It is crass and disgusting to such a degree that, excepting the hard-liner politicos, nobody would go see it. That being said, it is not even a good example of propaganda but rather an example of bad propaganda. It is evidence of the depravity and extreme degree of jewish hatred and the lengths to which the nazi's would go to control there citizens. After all, anti-semetism was, in many ways, a propaganda tool in and of itself.

Jew Suss on the other hand is a completely different beast. It is the creme de la creme of emotional engineering and as such is a historical artifact which we must both respect and fear. We must respect it in both its brilliance and the magnitude of its effect and we must fear it because of the monstrosities it helped justify and the ideologies it helped promote. In this sense, while we can laugh at the preposterousness of "The Eternal Jew" we must be wary and guarded when studying a work like Jew Suss so that in the event that a similar film is made in the future we are able to recognize it for what it really is and prevent history from repeating itself.

Anti-Semitism in Jew Suss and the Eternal Jew

Both Jew Suss and the Eternal Jew take on different approaches in terms of the way in which they seek to propagate the anti-Semitic message and sentiment of the Third Reich. Jew Suss takes the form of a drama, which is perhaps the reason why it was a true box office hit in Germany at the time. The decision to utilize this genre of film allowed moviegoers to absorb anti-Semitic propaganda indirectly. Jew Suss effectively communicates anti-Semitic propaganda by formulating a captivating plot that engages the viewer and allows them to empathize with various protagonists such as Dorothea, Faber, and the Germans while indirectly forcing the audience to view the Jews, particularly Oppenheimer, as the antagonists of the story. As a result, Jew Suss is not only entertaining, but it serves as an effective propaganda film unlike the ‘documentary’ Eternal Jew.

The Eternal Jew was a total flop in Germany during the same period as Jew Suss primarily because of the oppressive manner in which it communicates its disgust and fear of Jews. This film takes the form of a documentary that seeks to convey the truth about the so-called plague that is spreading throughout Germany and the world – Judaism. The film overtly communicates its anti-Semitic message to the audience by relentlessly portraying the Jews as burdens on society, paralleling them with subjects like rats and disease. Such poor execution is burdensome on the audience and allows me to understand why it would have been difficult or uncomfortable to sit through an entire screening.

A comparison between Jew Suss and the Eternal Jew, both products of a specific epoch, both from a similar ideological vein, reveals interesting insights into effective propaganda. Jew Suss and The Eternal Jew touch on similar Nazi tropes: The parasitic nature of the Jewish people, their seemingly unstoppable spread across 'true' nations and peoples, their chameleon-like ability to blend into a 'host' society in order to take advantage, etc. The main difference between Jew Suss and the Eternal Jew and the resulting difference in popularity and de facto effectiveness of the propaganda, lies in the power of the narrative. Jew Suss utilizes a well made narrative to create a reality--The eternal Jew attempts to ethnographize the Jewish people and thus warn against their evils through a stream of facts. In Jew Suss the viewer is presented with the opportunity to confuse the faults of a part with the whole, that is the narrative allows for an evil character to make lasting insinuations of the Jewish race. Conversely, the Eternal Jew addresses the problem of the Jew by listing the faults of a whole through sweeping generalizations. The effectiveness of Jew Suss as a piece of propaganda lies in human nature--leading one to make connections will give a lasting impression, however, making the connections for them rarely does. There is a basic human necessity in drawing ones own conclusions and we feel a sense of veracity--even when the conclusion is one we have been conditioned to make.

The Eternal Jew as the failed continuation of Jew Suess

Both, Jew Suess and the Eternal Jew, are pieces of open Nazi propaganda against Jews but the way the movies are made could not be more different: the Eternal Jew is presented as a “documentary” (even though most of the “facts” Fritz Hippler presents are simply made up) whereas Jew Suess is in a way a tragic love story - a topic that is even today very common in most Hollywood productions. Thus it is understandable that the Jew Suess was a great success back in the Germany of 1940 whereas the Eternal Jew was not: people also wanted to be entertained and not to be just fed with information.

But if one thinks about the fact that the eternal Jew was released after Jew Suess being a huge success one could get the impression that the Nazis tried to take propaganda against the Jews a little bit further. Jew Suess ends “just” with the banishment of the Jews to keep the German blood pure and the execution of a single Jew. As we haven’t watched the end of the Eternal Jew until now I don’t know how Hippler tries to solve the Jewish “problem” but from what we have seen so far I could imagine that he suggests much harsher measures: from it being right to put Jews into working camps to the total extinction of the Jewish race.

Jew Suss and Eternal Jew

The most obvious distinction between “Jew Suss” and “Eternal Jew” from a historical perspective is the anti-Semitism that moves with the story of Suss Oppenheimer as opposed to the “documentary” style of “Eternal Jew” which makes claims supported by alleged “facts.” The message of “Jew Suss” is clear about the state’s issues and death of a woman due to the inherent qualities of a Jewish person, and the solution being the expulsion of Jewish people from the society for good. This clearly shows the Nazi perspective on Jewish people and what they believe needs to happen to cleanse the society they had been promoting for almost a decade at its release. Promoting their anti-Semitic and extermination ideas differed in “Eternal Jew” which does not hide any of the Nazi sentiments behind a story line, but rather outright describes Jewish people as parasitic and a threat to society. This approach turned away viewers who enjoyed “Jew Suss” clearly due to an uncomfortable feeling about the statements made comparing the spread of Jewish people to the spread of rats, the idea of dehumanization, and the mission of convincing the viewer that Jewish people are the largest threat to the Nazi society. Anti-Semitic viewers could potentially relate and enjoy “Jew Suss” but being told what to think through outrageous claims in “Eternal Jew” push the limit for those that do not fall under “politically active segments.” As historical documents, “Jew Suss” does a much better job at portraying the sentiments of the majority of Germany (based on its popularity), whereas “Eternal Jew” works historically as failed propaganda of those on the more extreme end of the spectrum. One can gain insights into Nazi perspectives through the success and failure of the two movies. German citizens at the time were ready to oust the Jewish and potentially see the similarities between Suss Oppenheimer and his counterparts, however the dehumanization and extermination propaganda was far too extreme and disturbing. The Nazi’s clearly tried to push the limit with “Eternal Jew” to gage the feelings over how German citizens would react to news of extermination.

Jew Suss vs. The Eternal Jew

Even though Jew Suss and the Eternal Jew were both made to belittle the people of the Jewish faith, they went about it in two different ways. As I watched Jew Suss it was amazing how subtle some of the comments towards Jews were made. It was like if you didn't listen close enough to to the conversations you would almost miss the snide remarks that were made. It is so conteracted in terms of The Eternal Jew, because they were so blantent in the ostrasizing of the Jews. Every Jewish person that they showed, was the result of your ideal of an orthodox Jewish person. Even though in Jew Suss from the beginning you are made to see how coniving Suss is, which makes him out to be a bad person. It is interesting how in The Eternal Jew they tell you that Jews are hardly seen doing any useful work and how they choose to be dirty. When in reality at that time they were given no choice.

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.

Werner Krauss is my Hero

When considering both Jud Süß and Der Ewige Jude, it is important to note format. Both of these films came out closely spaced in time, and for the same audiences. They had very similar messages, as far as antisemitism is concerned. Thus, in comparing he two, it is crucial to consider the aesthetics and rhetorical modes of each. In doing so, while trying to ignore the antisemitism, it is revealed that the German public was composed of normal people. It is no wonder that Jud Süß was a hit, and that Der Ewige Jude was not. The German people were not transmogrified into some completely different animal simply by nature of being bombarded with nazi ideals. When it comes to film, there are certain natural affinities that the masses have that are separate from their ideology. Any moviegoer would choose the dramatic and emotional Jud Süß over the phrenetic 'documentary' of Der Ewige Jude. Movies were expected to be fun and entertaining, even in Nazi Germany. Jud Süß, although it is extremely hateful, is a very well made movie. Their are characters with whom we empathize, and characters who we hate. [these characters are conveniently German and Jewish, respectively.] This is much more than we can expect from the name calling cacaphony and jumbled cinematography of Der Ewige Jude.
I would watch Jud Süß again long before I would even finish watching Der Ewige Jude, if given the chance, and the German population in 1940 obviously agrees with me.

[Note: the title of this post has little or nothing to do with the post itself.]

Why Jew Suss became a hit

After reviewing these two movies I think the biggest reason why Jew Suss became a "hit" at the theaters and with Germans came from the fact that it was a story. As I watched the movie, the themes that resonated throughout the movie came through the narrative - not this in your face, blunt and sometime aggressive fear that was evident in the Eternal Jew. One of the most common themes that we have seen throughout this class is the ability for the audience to relate to the movie, in some way shape in form, and leave the theater with and understanding regarding the next step. I think with Jew Suss's dramatic and narrative influence the audience could walk away from the movie understanding the "danger" the Jews posed for the survival of the German race, and therefore could stand behind the Reich's decision to exterminate the Jews without questions the rational behind this decision.

However, the Eternal Jew took a different approach which I believe instilled the wrong sense of fear and anxiety in the audience. The music, the pictures, the dreaded spread of the Jews shown over maps I believe offended and turned off the audience from watching and grasping the ideology of the movie. While it reiterated many of the same ideas that Jew Suss put forth, its inability to draw the audience in and constant reminder of the parasitic components of the Jews pushed them away from understanding the movie for what Goebbles and the Reich hoped it would portray. It is evident that Jew Suss enthralled the audience with its story-telling baseline, and it provided a face for the what the German race should be afraid of, without completely scaring them and pushing them away from remembering and applying the themes of the movie to their life.

Fear and Loathing in the Third Reich

What strikes me most by these two films is the way in which they create fear of Jews, not only disgust. In Jew Süss, for example, we are disgusted by Süss’s advances on the lovely, and clearly Aryan, Dorothea. Yet as licentious as Süss is, the driving emotion we feel during this movie is fear that Süss will come after our own daughters next. Similarly, while we are frustrated with the Duke for having succumbed to Süss’s villainy, we are also frightened that our own leaders will make the same grave mistake. Of course, the basis of this fear is artificial, and therefore the fear irrational, but the German citizens during the Third Reich would not necessarily have realized this.

The Eternal Jew uses fear in many of the same ways. The scene with the map showing the spread of the Jews across the world is a great example of how the film makes the audience frightened of nothing. (I mean seriously, they are showing white lines on a map. That’s it.) The films comparison of Jews to rats makes us feel disgust, yes, but worse is the implication of this comparison: that Jews bring a plague upon Europe. The Eternal Jew uses misleading and outright falsified information throughout the “documentary” to show the evil of the Jewish people and to instill panic in the German populace.

The use of fear tells us a lot about the Nazi perspective. Fear is a more visceral emotion that just disgust, and it makes us act even more irrationally than disgust or loathing. This approach to the European Jews made sense in the larger context of the Nazi perspective because it did not require a coherent argument or platform that would be explained to the Germans, it only required appealing to German emotions.

Jew Suss and The Eternal Jew

Jew Suss and The Eternal Jew both claim to be historically accurate, are anti-Semitic, were made around the same time, and yet the former was a great success and the latter a giant flop.  I think this tells us a great deal about German perspectives.  Jew Suss is the truth, and it looks like the truth the German people knew, especially Berliners who more than likely interacted with Jewish people.  The Jewish people existed around them, but were “lower” creatures with a different value set, and would ultimately bring down the German people.  The “good” Aryan people, such as the Colonel and Froder, could recognize this, and argued to both the fellow villagers and the audience why the Jews were bad.   The tactics was subtle, and did not shove the anti-Semitic sentiments down the audience’s throat.

The Eternal Jew took a different approach.  Here, in a “documentary” format, the anti-Semitic message was blatant.  Audience-goers later said that it was taxing on their nerves.  And no wonder, as The Eternal Jew throws “factual” information about Jewish people, including blatantly comparing them to parasites and rats.  Goebbels saw an opportunity after the success of Jew Suss, and tried to capitalize on it.  The German population, however, wasn’t ready for the blatant, in-your-face nature of the film .  The Nazi’s wanted them to be, however, so they released the film.

Drama vs. Documentary

Compare the drama Jew Suss and the "documentary" Eternal Jew as historical documents (both are products from 1940/41; both make claims about history). How can we use them today to gain insight into Nazi perspectives?

Both Jew Suss and The Eternal Jew portray Jewish stereotypes to elicit a negative reaction from the audience with relation to the Jewish “race”. However, they do so in different formats. Jew Suss is a drama that relies on the narrative to tell its story. There are characters that one can relate to and associate with real-life people. The story is compelling and although the message that the Nazis wanted to deliver is very real, the narrative is assumed to be fiction (even if it is based on a real-life person). The Eternal Jew is a documentary that the audience assumes to be factual. A documentary relies on its ability to show true information to deliver its message.

This distinction between a drama and a documentary is important to keep in mind when comparing the two films as historical documents. While Jew Suss can appeal to the audience with a compelling story and captivating characters, The Eternal Jew has to shock the audience with “statistics”, “prognostications” and “facts” in order to create its message. This difference could explain the different receptions for each of the films. Jew Suss was a big hit while The Eternal Jew was not, perhaps because of the fact that Jew Suss had characters that the audience could root for and a narrative story. As Historical documents, the two films function differently through their techniques, one appealing to audiences with drama and the other convincing audiences with facts. They both deliver anti-Semitic messages but the way in which they do so is their main difference.

Jud Suss vs. the Eternal Jew

While Jud Suss and the Eternal Jew both help us to gain insight into the Nazi worldview, particularly concerning the Jewish race, they go about ingraining these ideas in the minds of the German public in very different ways. It seems rather obvious that the Eternal Jew would have been less appealing to audiences and less successful than Jud Suss because it is too harsh in its convictions about the Jews. Anti-Semitism was palatable enough to contemporary Germans, but the effectiveness of the film Jud Suss lies in its ability to subtly justify Germans in their anti-Semitic beliefs through emotional and moral appeals.

However, both help us to see into the Nazi worldview by exposing the idea of “us” versus “them” inherent in almost all Nazi propaganda. In Jud Suss, the “good” Aryan Germans are the ones who believe in law and order and who unite as a people to protect these values against the “corruption” of Jewish influence. Conversely, the Eternal Jew fully exposes Nazi racial ideology, in a fashion similar to that of Victims of the Past, by making the “inferior” peoples seem synonymous with a bacteria or pest. The camera angles and eerie music in both of these films combine to create the effect that the land is being overrun with these “defective” people and races. Overall, both Jud Suss and the Eternal Jew give both contemporary German audiences and modern audiences a sense of the Nazi ideals concerning the justification of their policy of extermination. By using propaganda, whether subtle in Jud Suss or blatant in the Eternal Jew, the Nazis sought to so convince the German populace of the inferiority of non-Aryans that all would agree that their removal from society was necessary.

alexis blog

The two films Jew Seuss and the Eternal Jew are both historical films that attempt to capture the German people’s rampant anti Semitism The focus in comparison of these two films should focus less on their historical accuracy and more on why Jew Suss became a symbolic movie for Germanic pride and the Eternal Jew was scorned and harshly rejected. The historical accuracy becomes less significant when comparing the two films because of the role that Nazi cinema played in shaping the values and beliefs of the German masses before and during the war. Both films had the same goals and achieved very different outcomes. Jew Suss became a hallmark of Nazi propaganda. The goals were to further instill hatred of the Jews among the German people. Part of the mastery and skill of Goebbels’ propaganda plan was the subtlety of his tactics and this film was not an exception. The Eternal Jew simply went too far with its violent images that are not meant to persuade but reinforce the ideals that are already instilled. Robert Gibson makes a good point in his blog that “This issue of prior knowledge was at the heart of the correctly held view that the film’s failure was due to its forcefulness”. The knowledge and preconceived notions about the masses’ feelings towards the Jews were successfully played on in Jew Seuss and missed the mark in the Eternal Jew.

In Jew Suss, the film distorts some of the historical facts, but the facts are less important than the full blown anti Semitic message that the film portrays. The Eternal Jew however was a huge a flop because it had much more violent in-your -face images of hatred and anti Semitism. The film was a huge success also because of the way it delivers its anti Semitic message. Interestingly, the Eternal Jew is much more historically accurate as the film shows documented evidence and disturbing ritual slaughters of animals. The film was made to be a documentary film so its visual images are much more accurate to those of Jew Suss. Its visuals are much more violent and unavoidable and as Culbert argues in Art Culture and Media “ it (the film) is known for its relentless assault on everything Jewish: it argues for eradication of European Jewry”(148). Both films are about the same idea but go about showing it on film in radically different ways. Jew Suss’s success was also due to the “the mixture of sex and crime to the apolitical viewer”(153), while the Wandering Jew had a solely vulgar and graphic political message with “no room for emotional involvement” (153).

Out With the Jew!

Although both The Eternal Jew and Jud Suess both portray the mentality of the Nazi party towards the Jewish people and the undeniable propaganda against them, the two films operate in two very different directions. On one hand, The Eternal Jew directs its point to its audience very bluntly. Images and comparisons are crude and raw footage, used to show the worst and only the worst. Anything of aesthetic appeal in the German ideal gets to a play a role in the film only if it can serve a comparison role as the Good example to the Bad and the Ugly. The hate for the Jews is not merely apparent, but thrown into the face of the audience and practically forced upon the viewer. The film is built to play the strings of human aesthetic distastefulness, and indeed when watching the film, I had the feeling of wanting to hate and shun the subject at hand - if it weren't that the subject at hand happens to be an entire living, breathing race of people.

Jew Suess, on the other hand, has no less underlying hatred for the Jews in its message, but instead of simply dumping the entire mess of statistics and gruesome imagery of the festering Jewish cancer on the viewer, it rather invites the audience to come and hate the Jew. The film plays to an entirely different aspect of human empathy. In a way, it is similar to The Eternal Jew in that both use aesthetics to show differences and contraries. But Jew Suess itself begins in an aesthetically appealing setting, which is then tainted by the foul Jewish presence. In this way, it seems to draw out a more defensive, protective feeling rather than one of plain disgust. The audience has a side to root for, which is a thoughtful tool of its own, for the audience has only an even clearer understanding of what is right and what is wrong. Through this, Jew Suess gets it purpose across just as effectively of pitting the viewers against the Jewish population.

Subtelty versus Blatancy in Nazi Propaganda

Although both Jew Süß and The Eternal Jew are retellings of “historical” events, the manner in which they go about retelling the events are very different. Both films rely heavily on visuals to promote Nazi ideals of anti-Semitism, however, Jew Süß delivers its message in a more discrete way than The Eternal Jew, which likely allowed for the films to have vastly different reviews. Jew Süß uses an entertaining plotline to gradually show how disastrous society can become when too much authority is given to Jews. The Eternal Jew, instead bombards the audience with numbers and images, such as maps displaying the historical global spread of Jews. When comparing these two films, I find it hard not to immediately concentrate on the differing moods of the films, which result from these varying techniques.

Jew Süß engages the audience on a level beyond its political message, shifting the focus to the individual characters and away from the anti-Semitic undertones. Especially after Süß "masks" himself as a non-Jew, it is possible to not concentrate as much on the fact that the manipulation is by Jews. One is reminded of this, however, throughout the film. There are temporary breaks from the anti-Semitism, where one is able to view the events solely as manipulative actions taken from corrupt people, before being reminded again that these manipulators are Jews. Nevertheless, one is forced to conclude, after witnessing the events of the film, that Jews were, in fact, the problem several hundred years ago. The Eternal Jew, on the other hand, concentrates constantly on its anti-Semitic message. Because of this, one is forced instantly to either be in agreement with the film, or against it. The Eternal Jew takes the message from Jew Süß and expresses it in a more direct way. The message that was almost indirect but nevertheless unavoidable in Jew Süß is blatantly exerted throughout The Eternal Jew, which likely resulted in more discomfort and uncertainty among the audience during screenings.

It is easier to question something when you know exactly what you are questioning. In Jew Süß, numbers and dates do not play a substantial role, unlike the dominance of numbers and dates in The Eternal Jew. The problem with numbers and dates in The Eternal Jew, is similar to the problem with the film’s straightforward message, it forces one to choose sides. As soon as one date seems false, or one statistic seems exaggerated, one begins to doubt the overall validity of the film. While watching it in class, I constantly was forced to consider the accuracy of the numbers being reported. On the contrary, while watching Jew Süß, I was simply pulled into the world of the film, without the need to check any facts being presented. Jew Süß slyly suggests that Jews are bad, while The Eternal Jew screams that. Jew Süß feels like a piece of entertainment that is accompanied by an important message (the message’s applicability to modern times is suggested in the closing scene, as the importance of respecting the ban of Jews in the future is emphasized), while The Eternal Jew feels like a film someone would have to watch in school and rarely, if ever, choose to watch for pure enjoyment. The anti-Semitic messages of the films are unavoidable, although one is able to deliver in such a way that the audience, almost inevitably, eventually agrees, while the other forces the audience to make an early decision either in favor of the film or not. Both misrepresent history, but Jew Süß does it in a more entertaining and cleaver way, which, I believe, is the reason it was successful while The Eternal Jew was a flop.

Jew Suss and The Eternal Jew

Both Jew Suss and The Eternal Jew are Nazi propaganda films set out to influence their audiences that Jewish people were not only unlikeable, but disgusting, vile, filthy, finding pleasure only in money, and sexually promiscuous aliens. Though The Eternal Jew was filmed in a documentary style vs a film with a "plot", the message was just as clear and still produced the same feelings on screen.

The Eternal Jew focused on the Jew being a cultural wandering parasite, "feeding" off of the hardworking, healthy living Aryan race. These "aliens" were depicted as enjoying a life surrounded by dirt and only found satisfaction in bug infested ghettos that they were forced to live in. (That little detail was left out of the film). Jews are blamed for the downfall of Western music, science, art, and the promoting of anarchy; appeals to sentimental values are attempted as Jews are described as condoning cruelty to animals.Physical stereotypes are placed on Jewish characters making them stick out and look different than the handsome and noble Aryans of Germany, focusing on the fact that the Jew is such a sneaky piece of vermin that they can change form and trick others into thinking they do not belong to the worst race on the planet.

Jew Suss also focuses on the Jews need of fortune and jewlery though they "do not deserve it". Their physical characteristics are also focused on as they are portrayed with having hooked noses and being unattractive, making them stand out from Aryans. Several conversations throughout the film pushed the idea that Jews are rude and want nothing to do with non-Jews, staying only to themselves and hoarding everything they "stole". The reference to being a wanderer is enforced when a characters home is referred to as the "world", constantly moving, never finding anything stable, unlike the Germans who have pride in their home and do not wish to venture away from the fatherland.

The Nazi party had a plan to get as many of "their people" to think the way that they did and live the lifestyle that they deemed acceptable. With their films, they were able to reach millions, though probably not converting everyone into a firm National Socialist, the seeds of doubt and fear were planted in many minds which is all that needs to exist for an eventual negative outlook on that topic. Though The Eternal Jew is now banned in Germany and can only be used in classrooms for learning purposes, it served its purpose during its release and displayed (just like Jew Suss) the Nazi parties true hate and determination to convert as many people to their belief system as possible. Their perspective was one-sided and extremely ignorant, however they found a way to reach out to those who were just as ignorant and convert multitudes because they truly felt that what the believed was right. Jews were the rats of the human race, and the job of the pure and good Aryan people was to eliminate the aliens from the planet, one country at a time.

Ferdinand Marian clearly can play the Villain well...

Jew Suss and the Eternal Jew provide insight into the psyche and the acceptance of propagandist material. Both films demonstrate the “Jew” as a type. They are creatures that are inhuman, exceedingly greedy, unscrupulous, cunning, perverted, and dramatically different from the good German in every way. Moreover, both films emphasize the ability of the ‘jew” to infiltrate European society, and the necessity to exterminate the rodent. In each film the Jewish ghetto becomes a disgusting place that is contrasted with excessive wealth. Furthermore, both the drama and the documentary embrace long lasting stereotypes that are substantiated using historical evidence. The documentary uses maps and statistics. The whole of Jew Suss is claimed to be a true story. In both films an appeal is made to religious doctrine to display to truth of the argument against the Jews, particularly shocking (as I am sure the audience felt) is a quotation from Luther regarding Jews used in Jew Suss. The audience in either case would eventually allow this evidence to permeate their views, transferring it onto the Jews within their own society and developing comparisons to rationalize subsequent actions by the Nazis.

The critical difference between these two films is in their form. Jew Suss as a drama disguises the Anti-Semitic message, even if the disguise is only very thin, within a narrative. The Jews are characterized; they take on a collective voice and message in the form of Suess Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer is a detestable villain. He is cunning and greedy, his beady eyes and soft devilish voice exacerbate what the Eternal Jew clearly describes as the most dangerous kind of Jew. Hiding within the government, this type of “jew” is unrecognizable by most and has the ability to slowly and steadily destroy German society. If this menace is not destroyed the floodgates will open and the disease will spread to all of Germany. The audiences are not told this, but rather see it happen. They develop a hatred for Oppenheimer, and are invited to transfer that on disgust onto the crafty “jews” hiding in their midst. The closing lines of Jew Suss craft a sense of responsibility which ensures that no one in the audience will allow their great society to succumb to the disease of the “Jew.” The inferences of Jew Suss are much easier to handle for the audience because the propaganda is not as entirely blatant as in the documentary. Rather they come to conclusions on their own about the “Jew.” It is easy for audience to rationalize Jew Suss as a simple story, the documentary’s clear anti-Semitism proved too much for the common rational German to handle. They did not need disgusting metaphors and images to enhance an already burgeoning hatred established by the cautionary tale of Jew Suss. They understood quite well what the dangers were. It seems to me the Eternal Jew was simply a means to reinforce the message of Jew Suss particularly for those audience members too rationale or educated to give credence to the narrative. Saying to those Germans who may question Jew Suss that, “well you may not have believed the story, but here are the facts.” The Nazi’s clearly wanted to ensure that when it came to the Jewish Scourge their message was clear, drive them out and do away with them. It would seem to me that those who walked out either already understood the message, or found the message disgusting. However, as history has shown under the Nazis those in the latter categories were likely to keep that disgust to themselves.

Thoughts on Jew Suss and The Eternal Jew

Compare the drama Jew Suss and the "documentary" Eternal Jew as historical documents (both are products from 1940/41; both make claims about history). How can we use them today to gain insight into Nazi perspectives?

It is hard to imagine that anyone today, minus perhaps extremist/fanatical groups, could watch these films and think them to be historically accurate. However, as we should always be aware, even films made today that portray history are not always based in historical fact. Rather, most good history films, it seems, must skew history in an attempt to get the audience to connect with what is going on. The problem with this, of course, is that one can view the film and think "Wow, this is what really happened!!!" It would seem that, in trying to understand the Nazi perspective, their use of "historical" dramas like Jew Suss were used in just this way. By taking an actual story from history, the Nazis could skew the film and represent the outcome of history however they wished to further their ideological and anti-semitic agenda. This representation of history was enchanced, then, by presenting it with the particular genre of a drama. In this way, watching history becomes more appealing, creating a seductive allure for the audience to connect with. In this way, the "history" that is presented in the film would stick with you longer since you enjoyed watching it.

It certainly is interesting that although Jew Suss was so successful, the Eternal Jew was not. As we discussed in class, the Nazis, and particularly Goebbels, miscalculated when they thought the German audiences were ready for a film like this in the wake of the success of Jew Suss. From our brief viewing of the film, it would seem that one reason that this was so is that the history that is presented in The Eternal Jew is simply not appealing to watch. Certainly the same anti-semitic undertones run through both films, but the presentation in The Eternal Jew lacks the seductive allure that a drama such as Jew Suss has. As I sat in class watching the "documentary" it dawned on me how utterly boring it would have been to actually go to a movie theater and view this film. Although this film, along with Jew Suss, certainly gives much greater insight into the Nazi perspective in the early 1940s, and helps one realize that these films were certainly part of the greater puzzle building up to the Holocaust, they also give insight into the fact that German audiences at the time must have wanted to be entertained by a film and did not wanted to simply be lambasted with overt ideologic messages.

Using Prior Knowledge for Propaganda

Jud Süß and Der Ewige Jude are both examples of trying to use historical instruction as a propaganda tool. A very effective means of conveying a propagandistic message, historical instruction allowed National Socialist ideology to fit within and add to the audience’s preconceived notions. For instance, German viewers of Jud Süß may have known that ‘the people’ in the form of a council had a role in the government of 18th century Württemberg (or in other German cities). What they didn’t know and learned from the film—incorrectly of course—was that a stereotypically sly, manipulative, and greedy Jew tried and nearly succeeded to wrest control from the council’s hands. The effectiveness of the propaganda lay in the fact that it built upon prior knowledge. One of the reasons I think Der Ewige Jude was so unpopular at the box office was that it built so ineffectively upon prior knowledge. The degree of anti-Semitism among the German population has been debated among historians, but I think it can at least be said that the very extreme views on Jews expressed in the film were not broadly held. A lot of people had anti-Semitic thoughts or beliefs, but for most they were probably a lot milder than believing in a worldwide Jewish conspiracy. To these people, rather than building on prior knowledge, Der Ewige Jude was just a barrage of facts. If Jud Süß was an historical lecture, Der Ewige Jude was a sermon. This issue of prior knowledge was at the heart of the correctly held view that the film’s failure was due to its forcefulness.

The most disturbing fact about Der Ewige Jude is that, despite the made-up facts used to try to convince the public, the Nazis were deadly serious about their opinion of the Jews. They really did believe that there was an international conspiracy, that the Jews were responsible for both World War I and II, and that their calling was to do battle with the Jews. Although extermination was an option the Nazis arrived at over time in a complex manner, it is important to remember that the basic doctrine of Nazism was racism. The films on Jews, rather than being considered manifestos of Nazi opinions on the Jews, should be recognized for what they really were: attempts to gain public support (important even in a totalitarian state) for the exclusion, expulsion, and eventually extermination of Jews from German society. That is why, despite the almost comically overstated propaganda in Der Ewige Jude, we should be careful about laughing too much, because the basic belief behind the film is the same one that led to the deaths of so many millions of innocent people.

Goebbel's Mistep

From the movies Jew Suss and the Eternal Jew it seems clear that the Nazis (and Goebbels especially) overestimated the ease with which they could convince Germans that Jews were evil. While Jew Suss was an incredible hit as both a feature film and a piece of propaganda, the methods used in the film were not applied to the documentary the Eternal Jew. It seems that Goebbels believed that Jew Suss was a success because of its underlying theme, the need for Jewish expulsion, and not because of the drama portrayed on screen. As such, the Eternal Jew makes no effort to please the audience visually or emotionally; rather, the “documentary” uses disturbing clips, graphics, data, and music to appeal to the German public. Unfortunately for Goebbels, this tactic failed. The German public was apparently unprepared to drop the façade of the Nazi party. While Jew Suss allowed this façade to remain intact, keeping the anti-Semitic ideals hidden within the drama of an extensive plot, the Eternal Jew makes no apologies for its beliefs. From the numbers of people that left the theatre during the Eternal Jew, it seems the German public preferred the hidden messages. Germans may have been on the path to Jewish hatred; however, their hatred was not yet at the level of being able to watch swarms of rats and analogies of parasites on screen.

Nazi Perspectives in Jew Suess and The Eternal Jew

Clearly, from a historical standpoint, both Jew Suess and The Eternal Jew are historically false. Jew Suess skews a popular Jewish legend and The Eternal Jew misinterprets actualities as well as completely fabricates most of its “historical” material. Therefore, what we learn about history from these two films is limited to the choices the directors made about how to portray Jews and what that says about the intended audience of the time. Additionally, we can learn from the German reaction to the films and what that means for the historical climate of the time. As Silberman says, there is no such thing as an ideologically free reading of a text or story. Veit Harlan's reading of Suess Oppenheimer's story is far from ideologically free. Occasionally, however, his ideology is not completely clear. For example, the choices he makes in portraying Suess as Jewish, yet not identifiable with the “Jewish masses” are problematic. Does Harlan want to incite that Jews are difficult to identify and therefore pose a greater danger? Or perhaps did he make Suess identifiable to the German viewer so that they could see some of him in themselves so that they could more deeply abhor his “Jewish” vices. The term “ideologically free reading” holds almost no meaning in reference to The Eternal Jew, as the entire film is an ideological diatribe offering no alternative viewpoint. The film even curtails any possible loopholes in its rhetoric with anti-Semitic “rational”. What we can learn about the Nazi era perspective (besides the Government ideal of anti-antisemitism) is beholden in the reaction of Germans to the film. The fact that the film was not favorably accepted suggests to me that the Germans were not comfortable openly declaring death as the punishment for being Jewish. Although the reception to Jew Suess was positive, its message does not, at any point, mention or encourage mass extermination of Jews. The insight to be gained on the Nazi perspective lies within the nuances of choices made by directors while filming and the reaction of the films by viewers while watching.

Jew Suss and the Eternal Jew

Compare the drama Jew Suss and the "documentary" Eternal Jew as historical documents (both are products from 1940/41; both make claims about history). How can we use them today to gain insight into Nazi perspectives?