In 1936, German toy maker Günther & Co. released the board game “Juden Raus! Das Neue Gesellschafts-Spiel” (“Out with the Jews! The Game of the New Society”).
The Dresden-based firm invited kids to manoeuvre the six Jews out of German lands to an assembly point beyond the city walls and it was “Auf nach Palästina!” (Off to Palestine!) with them and total victory for you.
Of course, what with German borders growing all the time, the game would need updating.
One minute the little wooden Jew in the thimble hat was outside the zone of intolerance, the next he was inside.
And then what’s it with touching the little play Jews? If you’re not careful, the kinder might start building them little cars or houses to live in. Image via.
Exporting to Austria, Croatia and Italy was a possibility. But the big money was to be made flogging it in the Us. And that market was hard crack:
A Santa Claus on wheels appeared in front of a store in New York City on Dec. 6, 1938. The Santa bares signs urging the boycotting of Nazi Manufactured toys. A Christmas tree decorated with American toys shared the spotlight.
Predictably, the game was not a hit.
Take this review from Das Schwarze Korps in December 1938:
This invention … is almost a punishable idea, perfectly suitable as grist to the mills of hate of the international Jewish journaille, who would show around such a piece of mischief as a proof for the childish efforts of the nazistic Jew-haters with a diabolic smirk, if it would appear before her crooked nose.
-snip-
Jews out! yes of course, but also rapidly out of the toy-boxes of our children, before they are led into the dreadful error that political problems are solved with the dice cup.
To make a real impact on those young minds, you’d need comics: Hansi The Girl Who Loved The Swastika – the full comic.
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