Der ewige Jude (The Eternal Jew, which means the "Wandering Jew" in German) is a 1940 anti-Semitic Nazi propaganda film directed by Fritz Hippler at the insistence of German Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, though the writing is credited to Eberhard Taubert. The film consists of feature and documentary footage combined with new materials filmed shortly after the Nazi occupation of Poland, which then had a Jewish population of about 3 million (roughly 10 percent of the total population). The purpose of the film was to explain to the German public about the supposed danger posed by this new population, which had come under the control of the Reich. The Wandering Jew by Gustave Doré The Wandering Jew is a figure from Christian folklore. ... 1940 was a leap year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Eternal Jew: 1937 German poster. ... The term National Socialism has been used in self-description by a number of different political groups and ideologies, some of which have no connection with the Nazis; see National socialism (disambiguation). ... A propaganda film is a film, often a documentary, produced for the express purpose of propaganda: convincing the viewer of a certain political point. ... Dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels (October 29, 1897 – May 1, 1945) was Adolf Hitlers Propaganda Minister (see Propagandaministerium) in Nazi Germany. ... Eberhard Taubert (May 11, 1907, Kassel, Germany - 1976, Cologne) was a lawyer and anti-Semitic Nazi propagandist. ... The word Jew (Hebrew: יהודי) is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or someone of Jewish descent with a connection to Jewish culture or ethnicity; and often a combination of these attributes. ...

One of the opening shots of the film shows a pack of rats emerging from a sewer, juxtaposed with a crowd of Jews in a bustling Polish street. Close-ups of individuals show sickly, malformed facial features. The narration explains how just as rats are the vermin of the animal kingdom, Jews are the vermin of the human race and similarly spread disease and corruption. Unlike rats, however, the narrator continues, Jews have the uncanny ability to change their appearance and blend into their "human hosts." A chilling scene depicts four bearded men in traditional Jewish costume, then shows them shaved and in modern business suits, while the narrator explains that only a "trained eye" can distinguish their Jewish features. In this scene, the men's eyes roam from one side of the shot to the other as they smile at the camera--the men, who were filmed at gunpoint, were following the soldiers whose rifles were aimed at them. Species 50 species; see text *Several subfamilies of Muroids include animals called rats. ...

Other scenes include footage of notable figures such as Albert Einstein (placed adjacent to a series of images about Jewish control of the pornography industry), socialist leader Rosa Luxemburg, and even Charlie Chaplin, who was not Jewish but who managed to earn Adolf Hitler's wrath through his own film, The Great Dictator. Other noted figures are clearly taken out of context as well: for example, actor Peter Lorre is shown in a scene from Fritz Lang's film M, in which he played a child murderer. Albert Einstein, by Yousuf Karsh Albert Einstein (March 14, 1879 – April 18, 1955) was a German-born Jewish theoretical physicist of German, Swiss and American citizenship, who is widely regarded as the greatest scientist of the 20th century or even of all time. ... Pornography (from Greek πορνογραφία pornographia — literally writing about or drawings of harlots) (also informally referred to as porn or porno) is the representation of the human body or human sexual behaviour with the goal of sexual arousal, similar to, but (according to some) distinct from, erotica. ... Rosa Luxemburg Rosa Luxemburg (March 5, 1870 or 1871 - January 15, 1919, in Polish language Róża Luksemburg) was a Polish-born German Marxist political theorist, socialist philosopher, and revolutionary. ... Chaplin in his costume as The Tramp Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin, (16 April 1889 – 25 December 1977) was the most famous actor in early to mid Hollywood cinema, and also a notable director. ...   Adolf Hitler? (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945) was Reichskanzler from 1933, and Führer und Reichskanzler (Leader and Chancellor) of Germany from 1934, to his death. ... The Great Dictator is a film directed by and starring Charlie Chaplin. ... Peter Lorre, 1946, by Yousuf Karsh Peter Lorre (June 26, 1904 – March 23, 1964) was an actor especially known for playing roles with sinister overtones in Hollywood crime films and mysteries. ... Fritz Lang Friedrich Anton Christian Lang (December 5, 1890 - August 2, 1976) was an Austrian film director, screenwriter and occasional film producer, one of the best known emigrés from Germanys school of expressionism to work in Hollywood. ... Peter Lorre in M M (original title: M- Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder (translation: M- a city in search of a murderer)) is a 1931 German film noir directed by Fritz Lang and written by Thea von Harbou in which a serial killer, played by Peter Lorre, preys on...

Scenes of Jewish life in Poland were also staged to make the Jews objects of ridicule. Adam Czerniakow, whom the Nazis appointed head of the Judenrat (Jewish Council), is shown seated in front of a seven-branched menorah (candelabra), gesticulating wildly at the director's insistence, because "that is how Jews speak." Toward the end of the film, after showing how Jews have been responsible for the decline of Western music, science, art, and commerce, is a scene of a cow being slaughtered for meat by a shochet (Jewish ritual slaughter). This long scene, lasting several minutes, shows the animal in all its death throes. Adam Czerniakow, (Adam Czerniaków) (1880 – July 23, 1942) was a Polish-Jewish engineer and senator, born in Warsaw, Poland. ... Look up Cow in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Cow may refer to: Female cattle, other bovines, or other large mammals including elephants and whales. ...

Though it was released in German cinemas in 1940, the film was a failure. Audiences that had been accustomed to the elegant filmwork of directors such as Leni Riefenstahl in Triumph of the Will and Olympia and even to such popular anti-Semitic features as Jud Süß found that this film was exaggerated and extreme. Nevertheless, Hippler, who was Goebbels's favorite director, remained in Poland to continue "documenting" Jewish life. Despite the obvious bias, his later footage, particularly of the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto is historically valuable because it is the only filmed record of the event. Riefenstahl in The Blue Light, 1931 Berta Helene Amalie Leni Riefenstahl (August 22, 1902 - September 8, 2003) was a German actress, director and filmmaker widely noted for her aesthetics and advances in film technique. ... Nazi Party Congress 1934. ... Olympia is a 1938 film` by Leni Riefenstahl documenting the 1936 Summer Olympics. ... Cover of the program for the 1940 Nazi film Jud Süß. Jud Süß, (The Jew Süss), was the nickname of Joseph Süss Oppenheimer and is the title of an 1827 novella by Wilhelm Hauff, a 1925 historical novel by Lion Feuchtwanger, a 1934 British film and a Nazi... The Getto Heroes Memorial The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest of the Jewish ghettos established by Nazi Germany in General Government during the Holocaust in World War II. In the three years of its existence, starvation, disease and deportations to concentration camps and extermination camps dropped the population of the...

An unrepentant Fritz Hippler was interviewed in the Emmy Award winning program The Propaganda Battle in the PBS Series "Walk Through the Twentieth Century" In this interview he explains that he regrets that his name was listed as the director of The Eternal Jew because the Allies interogated him after the war. He thought this was very unfair because, of course, he had nothing to do with the killing of Jews. PBS re-directs here; for alternate uses see PBS (disambiguation) PBS logo The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is a non-profit public broadcasting television service with 349 member TV stations in the United States. ...

External Links

• The Eternal Lie