ATTRIBUTED TO THEO MATEJKO POGROM. Circa 1919. 74x491/2 inches. WEAG, Vienna. Condition B+: restoration and overpaining along vertical and horizontal folds and in margins. Two-sheets. A chilling poster for a movie of which no records remain, based on one of the most important anti-semitic legal cases in the 20th century. In Kiev, March, 1911, Menachem Beilis was accused of mudering a young Christian boy and using his blood for ritual purposes (the age old Blood Libel Myth). A anti-semitic Duma and an edgy population had no trouble bringing charges against the Jewish factory superintendent despite an overwhelming lack of real evidence. Beilis remained imprisoned for more than two years until his trial in 1913. All around the world outrage was expressed at the charges and imprisonment "Protests and addresses by scientists, public and political leaders, artists, men of letters, clergymen and other liberal minded men were publicshed in all the civilized countries of Europe and the United States" (www.jewishgates.com/file.asp?File_ID=278). At the end of his one month trial, in October 1913, Beilis was unanimously declared "Not Guilty."
