A film used to "educate" the German public on the "danger" allegedly posed by the Jews, this film does all it can to paint Jews as subhuman (or better, anti-human) monstrosities.
Randall Bytwerk points-out in his biography of Nazi leader Julius Streicher (an excellent book which is much more about anti-Jewish propaganda techniques than it is a biography) that it was impossible for the Nazis to actually make the mass of Germans actively hate their Jewish fellow citizens. Bytwerk argues that the propaganda machinery focused on the idea of making Jews seem so wretched, disgusting and hateful that they would appear to be beings simply not worth caring about. This film, it seems to me, takes that as its motivation.
There is one interesting moment that hurts the filmmakers' cause: the camera panning over the crowds in the ghetto, when a group of Jewish youngsters are shown plainly trying to look over one another's shoulders and heads, grinning at the camera. Such moments would remind the average person that these were plainly people like anyone you might know.
Overall, however, the Berlin Gestapo reported that audience reaction to this film was "highly favorable," particularly the scenes equating Jews with disease-spreading rodents.
Randall Bytwerk points-out in his biography of Nazi leader Julius Streicher (an excellent book which is much more about anti-Jewish propaganda techniques than it is a biography) that it was impossible for the Nazis to actually make the mass of Germans actively hate their Jewish fellow citizens. Bytwerk argues that the propaganda machinery focused on the idea of making Jews seem so wretched, disgusting and hateful that they would appear to be beings simply not worth caring about. This film, it seems to me, takes that as its motivation.
There is one interesting moment that hurts the filmmakers' cause: the camera panning over the crowds in the ghetto, when a group of Jewish youngsters are shown plainly trying to look over one another's shoulders and heads, grinning at the camera. Such moments would remind the average person that these were plainly people like anyone you might know.
Overall, however, the Berlin Gestapo reported that audience reaction to this film was "highly favorable," particularly the scenes equating Jews with disease-spreading rodents.