Advertising Poster of the "Beit HaAm" Cinema – Screening of a Film Documenting the Boxing Match between Max Baer ...

Advertising Poster of the "Beit HaAm" Cinema – Screening of a Film Documenting the Boxing Match between Max Baer and Max Schmeling – "The Sensational Boxing Match between the Jewish Boxing Hero and the German Boxer, Hitler's Hero" – Tel-Aviv, 1934
Advertising poster of the "Beit HaAm" cinema in Tel-Aviv, for a screening of a film documenting the match between the Jewish American boxer Max Baer and the German boxer Max Schmeling. Printer and year not indicated, [Tel-Aviv, 1934].
In June 1933, the American boxer Max Baer beat the German boxer Max Schmeling at the Yankee Stadium in New-York, in front of an audience of about 60,000 people who filled the stadium to capacity. Baer, whose grandfather was Jewish, wore to the match trunks which displayed the Star of David, in a show of solidarity with the Jews who were persecuted by the Nazi regime established in Germany that year. Many considered him a representative of the Jewish people and his victory by a technical knockout in the tenth round was perceived as a kind of symbolic victory over Nazi Germany.
Likewise, Schmeling was identified with Nazi Germany. Due to his success, and especially due to his being the first German to win the title of world champion in heavyweight boxing, he gained much popularity in his country and the support of Hitler. His participation in matches outside Germany was used in German propaganda. Before the match against Baer he was even invited to a meeting with Hitler where he was instructed to deny the persecution of the Jews of Germany in interviews to the American press.
About three years after the loss to Baer, Schmeling regained his fame by defeating the Afro-American boxer Joe Louis, in a match which to this day is considered one of the greatest boxing matches in history. Subsequent to his victory, presented by the Nazis as evidence of the superiority of the Aryan race, Hitler referred to him as "the greatest German boxer". Despite being presented by Nazi propaganda as a model German man, Schmeling himself had reservations about the policy of Nazi Germany. He was a German patriot, yet never joined the Nazi party and opposed the Aryan racial theory. Even under the pressure of the party, he refused to fire his Jewish manager Joe Jacobs and divorce his Czech wife.
In 1938, a rematch was held between Schmeling and Joe Louis. This match, which was titled the "Battle of the Century", reaped unprecedented public and political attention. Louis won by a knockout on the first round, after two minutes and four seconds. About this loss, Schmeling later said: "Looking back, I'm almost happy I lost that fight. Just imagine if I would have come back to Germany with a victory. I had nothing to do with the Nazis, but they would have given me a medal. After the war I might have been considered a war criminal".
Several months after the match, during Kristallnacht, Schmeling showed extraordinary courage when he hid two Jewish boys in his room in a hotel in Berlin, saving their lives. For this deed he was awarded the Raoul Wallenberg Medal.
In 1934, about eighteen months after the boxing match between Max Schmeling and Max Baer, a film documenting the match was screened at the "Beit HaAm" cinema in Tel-Aviv. This poster, which advertises the screening of the film, reflects the political attempt to introduce the match as a struggle between Nazi Germany and the Jews. The poster reads: "For the First Time in Tel-Aviv… The Sensational Boxing Match between the Jewish Boxing Hero and the German Boxer, Hitler's Hero… The Hands are those of Jacob over the Contemporary Esau", depicting a pair of boxing gloves, one bearing a Star of David and the other a Swastika.
63X95 cm. Good condition. Fold lines and minor blemishes. Small closed and open tears to edges. Stamp in the center. A strip of tape along the upper edge on verso. Presumably, the poster was originally published with an additional part printed separately and dedicated to another screening at the "Beit HaAm" cinema.