Help With This Imperial-Era Postcard

[sylvieK4]

I found this German postcard on the ebay auction site. It is apparently from the Imperial period and depicts Tsar Nicolas II making an appeal to Jews.

What is the point of this card? Is it to link the Tsar with Jews, or perhaps to make Jews appear to be pro-Russian?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... tegory=917

[Olivier Palardy]

Hello,

This postcard seems to turn the Tsar in derision. He is begging the jews for help by promising "Knute" (I really can't find the meaning of this word) while on the left are listed the benefits of the house of the Romanov. Those benefits are pogroms, the conduction of the "Beilis" (can't find the meaning of this word too) process and the interdiction of jewish immigration in Russia. At the end, it is written: Now help me!

I did not know that the Germans had a special propaganda for the jews in Russia... Quite interesting

Regards
Olivier Palardy

[Galahad]

I think "Knute" means a knot or a skein.

[sylvieK4]

Thank you, Olivier and Galahad, for your replies. It is very interesting. It appears the Germans of the First War were more eager to gain the approval and support of the Jews in the East than their sons would ever think to be.

[viriato]

The Jews were themselves quite pro German in the old Russian Empire. Most of them spoke Yidish, itself basically a Germanic language (its origin is on the spoken German of the late Middle Ages/Renaissance) with some Hebrew and Slavic loans and written in the Hebraic script. Thus Jews were many times used by the German occupiyng forces as interpreters. They had too quite a number of relationships with Germany, both economical and cultural and beside that many Jews had relatives in Germany due to emigration to this country especially those living in Congress Poland. Moreover the Germans had a policy of keeping good relations with the people of occupied territories as they tried to separate them from Russia. Finally Jews were commonly persecuted in the Russian Empire, always living in the fear of new progroms. The German occupation was for them a peaceful and probably a pleasent time unheard before, and this in spite of the war going on.

[sylvieK4]

Well put.

From: Yiddishland - Gerard Silvain and Henri Minczeles. Ginko Press, 1999

[viriato]

Hi sylvieK4.

Great book that one. I don't have it but I already had the chance to see it. Most of the fotos are simply great. It thoroughly confirms my previuos post.

[Karl da Kraut]

Galahad wrote:

I think "Knute" means a knot or a skein.

I'm afraid there is no 1 to 1 translation for "Knute", but I guess "whip" comes close [knot=Knoten]. "Unter der Knute stehen" - literally "standing under the whip" is a common figure of speech meaning "being oppressed."
Until 1917, this term was often used in connection with the despotic rule of the czars.

[sylvieK4]

Thanks, Karl. That makes a lot of sense.

Viriatro, yes, that is a good book. It is made up of all postcards from the early 20th century to the 1940s. A nice glimpse into that place and time.