261 - The City Without Jews

Eavesdropping at the Movies · Nov 22, 2020 · 31m

1924's The City Without Jews, an Austrian silent film adapted from Hugo Bettauer's enormously successful novel of the same name, published two years earlier, imagines a European city undergoing hyperinflation and mass unemployment, blaming the Jews for its problems, and expelling them. Unthinkable! Needless to say, it both drew on and prefigured actual events, but some of the imagery is chillingly evocative of what was yet to occur, including the Chancellor's proud address from a balcony to the ecstatic crowds below, and the entire depiction of the Jews' eviction, from being kicked out of…