Jud Süß, published in 1925 by Lion Feuchtwanger and written in German, is a gripping historical novel based on the life of Joseph Süß Oppenheimer, a Jewish financier at the eighteenth-century Württemberg court. Feuchtwanger transforms the historical record into a richly observed exploration of power, assimilation, identity, and antisemitism.
The novel was an international bestseller and later, notoriously, the basis for a Nazi propaganda film — a testament to the story’s cultural potency and the danger of misappropriating art. Download this free public-domain EPUB to read Feuchtwanger’s original humanistic portrayal of a man caught between worlds.