If you’ve ever gone down a rabbit hole into the history of cinema’s darkest corners, you’ve likely bumped into The Eternal Jew movie. Honestly, it's not a "movie" in the sense of popcorn and entertainment. It’s a 1940 Nazi propaganda piece titled Der ewige Jude in German. It’s visceral. It’s cruel. It’s essentially a 62-minute exercise in how to weaponize a camera.
People often confuse it with Jud Süß, another antisemitic film released around the same time. But while Jud Süß was a big-budget historical drama designed to entertain, The Eternal Jew movie was marketed as a cold, hard documentary. It was meant to be the "truth."
What Really Happened During Production
Fritz Hippler directed it. He was only 31 at the time and headed the film department under Joseph Goebbels. Goebbels was obsessed with this project. He didn't just sign the checks; he personally intervened in the editing, demanding recuts to make the messaging sharper and more aggressive.
The "stars" of the film weren't actors. They were real people living in the Łódź, Warsaw, and Kraków ghettos in occupied Poland. Hippler’s camera crews filmed them under duress. Basically, they were forced to perform religious services or look "shifty" for the camera.
Imagine being ordered at gunpoint to act out a stereotype that would later be used to justify your own murder. That’s the reality behind the footage. The film claims to show Jews in their "original state" before they put on the "mask of civilized Europeans." It’s a disgusting concept, but it was the core of the Nazi's psychological warfare.
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The Infamous Rat Sequence
You can't talk about this film without mentioning the rats. It’s probably the most notorious sequence in propaganda history.
The editors spliced together shots of rats scurrying through sewers with shots of Jewish people in the ghettos. The narrator, Harry Giese, literally compares the migration of Jews to the spread of vermin. It’s a textbook example of dehumanization.
By equating a group of people with pests that carry disease, the film was trying to bypass the viewer's rational mind. It was meant to trigger a primal, "fight or flight" disgust. If you convince a population that another group is a biological threat, you make the idea of "eliminating" that threat feel like a matter of public health rather than mass murder.
Why Nobody Wanted to Watch It
Here is a weird fact: The Eternal Jew movie was actually a bit of a flop at the box office.
While Jud Süß sold millions of tickets because it had a plot and famous actors, the German public found Der ewige Jude too repulsive. It was too "on the nose." Even the Nazi's own security service, the SD, reported that audiences were turned off by the graphic scenes of ritual animal slaughter included at the end.
They wanted to feel like heroes, not look at blood and filth for an hour.
However, the film was mandatory viewing for certain groups. SS guards and people tasked with carrying out the "Final Solution" were often forced to watch it. It served as a training manual for hatred. It was meant to "harden" them.
Fabrication vs. Reality
Hippler claimed the film used no actors and was 100% authentic. That was a lie.
- Staged Services: They forced a congregation in a Vilker synagogue to wear prayer shawls (tallithim) and perform a service just for the camera.
- Stolen Clips: They used clips from international newsreels and even Hollywood films like The House of Rothschild (1934) without permission, re-contextualizing them to fit their narrative.
- Faked Maps: The film uses animations of "migrations" that were completely made up to look like a military invasion.
The Legacy of a "Forbidden" Film
Today, The Eternal Jew movie is what’s known in Germany as a Vorbehaltsfilm (reserved film). This means it is illegal to show it to the general public without a historical introduction and expert commentary.
You can't just buy it on a standard streaming service, and for good reason. It’s essentially a blueprint for genocide. Historians like Stig Hornshøj-Møller have analyzed the film frame-by-frame to show how it prepared the German public for the Holocaust.
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What’s scary is how pieces of this film still show up. Sometimes, modern documentaries use clips from it as "generic footage" of life in the ghettos. This is a massive mistake. Using footage shot by Nazis to "show" what life was like in a ghetto without acknowledging the cameraman’s intent is basically letting the Nazis tell the story from beyond the grave.
Actionable Insights: How to Spot Modern "Eternal Jews"
Propaganda didn't die in 1945. It just got better at hiding. If you want to protect yourself from these kinds of tactics today, look for these three red flags:
- Dehumanizing Imagery: Does the media compare a group of people to animals, insects, or diseases? That’s the oldest trick in the book.
- The "Unmasking" Narrative: Be wary of content that claims a group of people is "pretending" to be normal but has a "hidden, sinister nature."
- Visual Association: Notice when a video cuts from a specific person to something repulsive. Your brain will naturally link the two, even if there’s no logical connection.
To truly understand the history of the 20th century, you have to look at the tools used to break people's empathy. The Eternal Jew movie was the ultimate version of that tool. It remains a stark reminder that the camera doesn't always tell the truth—sometimes, it’s the biggest liar in the room.
If you’re researching this for a history project or just trying to understand the mechanics of hate, focus on the intent of the filmmaker. Don't just look at what is on the screen; ask why they chose that specific angle, that specific music, and that specific cut. That’s where the real story lives.
Next Steps for Your Research:
- Verify Sources: Look into the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) archives for their "State of Deception" exhibition, which breaks down the visual language of the film.
- Compare Media: Watch a critique of Jud Süß alongside a history of Der ewige Jude to see the difference between "entertainment" propaganda and "documentary" propaganda.
- Analyze the Speech: Research Hitler's Reichstag speech from January 30, 1939. This speech, which "prophesied" the annihilation of the Jewish race, is used as the climax of the film and provides the essential context for why the movie was made.