Jud Suss (With English Subtitles)

AntiTraitors
Published on May 6, 2020
Jud Süß (Jew Süss (süss translates as sweet, charming, etc.)) is a German film produced in 1940 by Terra Filmkunst.

The film has been characterized as “one of the most successful films produced in 1940’s Germany. It was a great success in Europe, with some 20 million viewers in Germany alone. Although the film’s budget of 2 million Reichsmarks was considered high for films of that era, the box-office receipts of 6.5 million Reichsmarks made it a financial success.

Joseph Süß Oppenheimer (Jud Suss) was an 18th century Court Jew who had schemed his way into the employment of Duke Karl Alexander of Württemberg in Stuttgart. As a financial advisor for Duke Karl Alexander, Duke of Württemberg, he also gained a prominent position as a court Jew and held the reins of the finances in his duchy. He established a duchy monopoly on the trade of salt, leather, tobacco, and liquor and founded a bank. In the process, he made a number of enemies who knew among other things that he was involved with local gambling houses. When Karl Alexander died suddenly, Oppenheimer was arrested and made to answer for his crimes of fraud, embezzlement, treason, rape and accepting bribes. The Jewish community perfectly aware of his criminal activities tried unsuccessfully to ransom him. After a heavily publicized trial, he was sentenced to death. Joseph Süß Oppenheimer was led to the gallows on 4 February 1738, and there he was hanged to death.