19 Nazi Propaganda Photographic Boards Depicting the “Subhuman” and the Aryan Race. Each the size of a postcard (15×10.5 cm), depicting various individuals with “subhuman” traits according to Nazi ideology, juxtaposed with images of the “superior” Aryan race. These boards are part of a series titled Untermensch (“Subhuman”), intended for teaching Nazi racial theories to German youth. Germany, C.1933
The photographs present young individuals with varying degrees of intellectual disabilities, distorted facial features, and physical deformities, including Jews portrayed with stereotypical features, to demonstrate the appearance of the “subhuman” or “unproductive” individual. Some of the photographs were taken at institutions for people with physical and mental disabilities in Germany. In contrast, the series includes photographs of Aryan individuals—Hitler Youth members standing in a row (taken in 1933 by Reinke), a strong “productive” German family at a meal, German girls dancing, and German teenagers observing a newborn, all to illustrate the purported superiority of the Aryan race.
Among the images, there are also photographs of South Africans, including a notable photo of Blaž Djan, depicted as part of the “inferior” races.
These boards are part of a larger series, with the following numbers included in this collection: 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 16, 17, 18, 24, 25, 25a, 26, 29, 30, 33, 34, 35.
The term Untermensch (from German: “subhuman”) was a racist and propagandist term used by the Nazis to describe groups they defined as “racially inferior, ” primarily Jews, Roma, Slavs, and others who did not fit into the Aryan racial ideology.
The term was used to justify the persecution, dehumanization, and eventual extermination of these groups. It featured prominently in Nazi propaganda, in the writings of Alfred Rosenberg, and in Nazi press imagery. It was used to strengthen the concept that the “Übermensch” (superman), meaning the Aryan Germans, were destined to rule over and exterminate the Untermensch. The concept was spread widely through propaganda materials such as pamphlets, books, posters, educational worksheets, and photographs, such as the Untermensch series, to depict the “enemies of the race” and present them as a threat to the survival of the Aryan race.
When the Wehrmacht invaded the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler published a pamphlet titled Der Untermensch, intended to incite hatred against Eastern European peoples.
19 boards. 15×10.5 cm. Very good condition.
