The exhibition poster of the Berlin venue depicts a photograph of a German man in uniform harassing a Jewish man in Poland in fall 1939.

The image is taken from a photographic sequence in the exhibition (scene 2│2│2) that documents how Jews in many areas were forced to perform humiliating and often senseless tasks after the Wehrmacht’s invasion of Poland. The German soldiers abused their victims while they worked, often shaving off the beards of Orthodox Jewish men. In many cases, ethnic Germans from the local population participated in the abuse.

Also worthy of note is the source of the photograph, which was discovered in the course of extensive research conducted at the Stadtarchiv Nürnberg, which contains remnants of the former “Der Stürmer” archive. These holdings include a number of photographs and letters sent to the “Stürmer” by readers. The “Stürmer” encouraged the German public to take active part in anti-Jewish persecution; readers obliged by sending in photographs documenting anti-Semitic harassment and abuses, denouncing “members of the people’s community” who refused to boycott Jewish shops, and penning letters emulating the “Stürmer’s” cynical and inflammatory anti-Semitic tirades.

After the start of the war, the “Stürmer” encouraged Wehrmacht soldiers to send in photographs depicting Jews being compelled to perform forced labor. The image on the poster also stems from this collection; the sender is unknown. The “Stürmer” published a detail of a different photograph of the same Jewish man. The published version omits the Wehrmacht soldier and the onlookers, but bears a typically inflammatory anti-Semitic inscription: “The first time at productive labor! A Jewish usurer is made to perform construction work in Poland.”