Jew Suss: Rise and Fall

Commentary by Frank Stern, cultural and film historian

Can film be crime?

The 1940 Nazi propaganda film JUD Süss

Over 20 million saw the 1940 propaganda film JUD SÜSS in Germany, Austria and the Wehrmacht-occupied countries of Europe. The film (directed by Veit Harlan) was not simply a cinema film, but was also used among SS Einsatzgruppen, the soldiers of the Wehrmacht and the crews of the concentration and extermination camps. When the Nazi empire collapsed, this feature film was therefore one of the first productions by Ufa and Terra to be withdrawn from circulation by the Allied victorious powers and its public screening was placed under reserve. This is how it has remained to this day. JUD SÜSS belongs to a long list of prohibited and whose essential message is racism, anti-Semitism, warmongering and hatred of everything culturally different. The historical and costume film is set in early 18th century Stuttgart and tells the story of the Jewish merchant Joseph Süß Oppenheimer (played by Ferdinand Marian), who rises to office and dignity at the court of the Duke of Würtemberg. He becomes the Duke's financial advisor and confidant and ensures that the Jewish population can live in Stuttgart against the will of the estates, but he abuses his power, rapes a young woman and is punished by hanging after the Duke's death. It is a classic historical drama, lavishly filmed with a star-studded cast, set down to the smallest detail and, as the audience is assured at the beginning of the film, claiming to depict the historical truth. What it skilfully tells in cinematic terms, however, is not the historical truth about the role of the Jews in Württemberg before their equality under civil law, but a racist and anti-Semitic falsification of history to suit the taste of National Socialist ideology. The film was immediately immensely promoted, recommended to German youth and part of the racist re-education of the population.

**Propaganda through fil...