Single page, black-and-white magazine advertisement for the film “The Ramparts We Watch.” The advertisement has a narrow, white margin on all four sides. In the top center of the page is a canted image of a typewritten letter to the film producer, praising the movie. Overlaying the top left and bottom right corners of the letter are photographic images from the film, each labeled with a year in white. The bottom third of the advertisement consists of a black rectangle with two columns of white text, and the film title in large, block letters. The reverse page features three columns of unrelated text and images. There is a small tear in the lower left corner, and small discolored punctures along the left edge, likely where the original magazine staples held the page in place.
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The Cinema Judaica Collection consists of more than 1,200 objects relating to films about World War II and the Holocaust as well as Jewish, Israeli, and biblical subjects, from 1923 to 2000, from the United States, Europe, Israel, Canada, Mexico, and Argentina. The collection was amassed by film memorabilia collector Ken Sutak, to document Holocaust-and Jewish-themed movies of the World War II era and the postwar years. The collection includes posters, lobby and photo cards, scene stills, pressbooks, trade ads, programs, magazines, books, VHS tapes, DVDS, and 78 rpm records. Sutak organized these materials into two groups, “Cinema Judaica: The War Years, 1939–1949” and “Cinema Judaica: The Epic Cycle, 1950–1972” and, in conjunction with the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Museum (now the Dr. Bernard Heller Museum in New York), organized exhibitions on these two themes in 2007 and 2008. Sutak subsequently authored companion books with the same titles.
The advertisement was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2018 by Ken Sutak and Sherri Venokur.
Overall: Height: 14.000 inches (35.56 cm) | Width: 10.500 inches (26.67 cm)
Magazine advertisement for the American feature film “The Ramparts We Watch,” released in the United States on August 16, 1940, and re-released in September with a revised ending. “The Ramparts We Watch” was the first feature-length film produced by March of Time, a subsidiary of Time, Inc., who was primarily known for newsreels. As a result, the film blends newsreel and archival footage with dramatized scenes. Filmed in New London, Connecticut, producers recruited local residents for the cast. The film begins in 1914, when Americans are learning about the escalation of war in Europe. It centers on the residents of an unnamed small town, which includes Austrian and German immigrants who are directly affected and treated with suspicion. As the war progresses, residents of the town and nation begin debating whether the United States should remain neutral. After the U.S. enters the war in 1917, many of the men in the town volunteer or are drafted. The film’s final section is an appeal to the audience, explicitly arguing that in the present day, the country is facing a similar threat from Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany, and advocates for intervention. “The Ramparts We Watch” incorporated footage from the German propaganda film “Baptism of Fire,” and the filmmakers were accused of piracy by a German distribution company and threatened with reprisals by the German government. The film was also banned in several U.S. states because of the footage. This object is one of more than 1,200 objects in the Cinema Judaica Collection of materials related to films about World War II and the Holocaust as well as Jewish, Israeli, and biblical themes.
U.S. magazine advertisement for the film “The Ramparts We Watch” (1940)