The portrayal of Jews in the Third Reich was not simply defamation. It was the attempt to vilify the Jew to the European Community, making the Jew an object of hatred and not possessing personhood. Extermination of 'dangerous objects' or beasts was far more 'marketable' in propaganda to an overburdened Europe than the Genocide of a people who had helped to build Europe. Notice the exaggerated features and expressions Prevailing stereotypes about the Jews were heightened: large noses, miserly greed, sinister looks and motives. The Jews portrayed above are not the Jews of 20th century Germany and Poland, they are either the Jews of history and extreme orthodoxy (in no way wrong, but portrayed for its differences) or the Jews of the banking industry or Bolshevism. The third poster presents a green-colored face on the Swiss Jew a reference to the
'money-handling' Jews. The first two are posters regarding The Eternal Jew a propaganda film widely distributed by the Third Reich which described Jewish people as 'vermin' and compared them visually to rats which must be exterminated.
Two Excellent Resources on Poster Art,
Signs and other forms of Visual Propaganda are:
