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 chosen generally make Jews look as unpleasant as possible.
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 Gentiles. 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 Gentile 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)
