A Nazi View of America in 1943

I sometimes come across things that aren’t worth adding as a page on the German Propaganda Archive, but may interest people. This cartoon comes from Signal (2nd May issue 1943), an illustrated German magazine that appeared in over twenty languages during WWII. It makes the standard Nazi argument that the United States idolized technology and eliminated all individuality.

The text says: “The person is also ‘standardized’: Europeans also value technological progress as long as does not become their idol That is what America does. One eats from tin cans, one wears standardized shirts, standardized hats, standardized suits. One also thinks in standardized ways. American culture is no longer civilized.

This is how the standard American looks to Europeans, who value and preserve the variety of their cultures.”

A German Cartoon during the Blitz

Every now and then I come across something I don't add to the German Propaganda Archive, but is worth noting. Today it was a cartoon from the Völkischer Beobachter of 8 September, 1940: the height of the Battle of Britain. The Germans were optimistic, having no idea that far worse would descend on them.

New Music above the Parliament of Westminster

Nazi Satire about the USA (1943)

In 1943 the Nazi party’s illustrated magazine ran a series of back page cartoons titled “The Latest from God’s Own Country” satirizing the United States.  I find them interesting, and may add a page of them one of these days.  Meanwhile, here is an example from the Illustrierter Beobachter in March 1943.

The occasion was a report from the New York Times that Christ Episcopal Church in St. Joseph had turned itself into a nightclub for the youth. At the bar, a gentleman says “He would be happy if we occasionally sang a pious hymn.  Let’s do him that favor.”  At the bottom, the priest is praying under pictures of FDR and Stalin: “Dear God, give the President and above all Comrade Stalin the strength to clobber the Nazis! And I thank you from the depths of my heart for the great success of our night club! I can protect my sheep from evil and even make a few dollars.” The woman talking to the deacon says: “You know, Deacon, I have nothing against the nighttime activities here —there must be propaganda, I know — but this is the second time I found a bra underneath the pew during morning prayers — that is going a bit too far.”

Nazi Caricatures on Domestic Themes

The newest page provides examples of Nazi caricatures on domestic  themes. Since it was not possible to criticize much about life in the Third Reich, cartoonists naturally focused on enemies beyond Germany’s borders.

A 1943 cartoon claiming that German morale is so strong that the collapse of 1918 will not be repeated.

Cartoons that addressed domestic themes had to reinforce the war effort or go after those the Nazis didn’t like. Complainers and gossipers were standard targets.

Just after Stalingrad, Germans were told that personal comfort was far less important than tanks.

There was never, of course, any criticism of Nazi leaders or policies.

Nazi Caricatures on Stalin and the USSR

I’m adding pages of Nazi caricatures on the USSR and Joseph Stalin.  With the exception of the period between August 1939 and June 1941, the Soviet Union was always a target of Nazi propaganda. The Soviets, in fact, were much worse than the French, British, and Americans, as they were under the rule of an evil competing ideology.

1942: Soviet Offensives Fail

1944: Soviets as Monsters

The perspective changed over time. In the 1930’s, Nazism presented the Soviet Union as a land of mass butchery (for which there was more than adequate evidence).  Once the war began, the Soviets were a threat not only to their own citizenry, but to the entire world.

Nazi Caricatures on U-boats

As part of my current project on caricatures, I am adding a page of Nazi cartoons on submarines.

Churchill and FDR shoveling ships

Sunken ships discuss how they sank

Such cartoons were particularly popular in 1942 and 1943.  After about May 1943 the British and Americans developed increasingly successful measures against German submarines and the theme almost vanished.

Nazi Caricatures on France

I’ll be adding pages on Nazi caricatures on various themes over the next few weeks.  Today I add a page of cartoons about France between 1933 and 1940.  Two examples:

France and Disarmament (1933)

France in Bed with a Black Soldier (1940)

Prior to the war, the basic Nazi theme was that France was building up its armaments, intended for use against Germany.  Once the war began in 1939, a standard theme was that France was claiming to defend European civilization, but was depending on savage Black colonial troops to do so.

Nazi Caricatures of FDR

Over the next month I will be adding many caricatures taken from Nazi satirical periodicals: Brennessel, Kladderadatsch, Fliegende Blätter, and Lustige Blätter.  Some are taken from my own collection, others from the excellent on-line collections of the University of Heidelberg.

Today I’m adding a page on Franklin D. Roosevelt: A few examples:

A cartoon showing FDR’s Jewish reflection

FDR on the electric chair

They provide interesting examples of Nazi propaganda, and also show how it responded to changing conditions.

Winston Churchill in Nazi Propaganda

Back in 2009 my article on Winston Churchill in Nazi caricatures appeared in Finest Hour, the monthly publication of the Churchill Centre.  It is now available on-line.

Many caricatures are available on the GPA page on Winston Churchill.

Nazi Cartoon on the Jehovah’s Witnesses

  The Nazis didn’t like the Jehovah’s Witnesses for a variety of reasons.  In this 1935 cartoon from Die Brennessel, one Jew says to another: “At least we are still the ‘Chosen People’ for the ‘Jehovah’s Witnesses’.”  Die Brennessel  was the weekly Nazi humor magazine, although it wasn’t all that funny.

Other material from Die Brennesssel is available on the GPA.

A 1927 Nazi Caricature: Killing Jews with Poison Gas

In Mein Kampf, Hitler writes that Germany would not have lost World War I if 12,000 - 15,000 “Hebrew corruptors of the people” had been killed with poison gas.

There were not a lot of such suggestions in Nazi propaganda before 1933 of killing Jews en masse, but Julius Streicher’s Der Stürmer did run occasional cartoons like this one that I am today adding to the page on pre-1933 cartoons from Der Stürmer.

A Nazi is pumping poison gas into a tunnel beneath an oak tree representing Germany. Dead Jewish rats are strewn about.  The caption: “When the vermin are dead, the German oak will flourish.”

The “Stab in the Back” Legend (1942)

While looking for other things I came across this vivid cartoon from  Der Schulungsbrief (#1/2/3 of 1942).  This was the Nazi Party’s periodical for “political education.”  Households were strongly encouraged to subscribe.

It portrayed the Nazi legend that Germany had won World War I militarily, only to be stabbed in the back by Jewish traitors in the homeland.  It’s interesting that this appeared early in 1942, after the invasion of the Soviet Union had not proved as successful as expected.  Discerning Germans by then were beginning to realize that the war could be lost — an idea propagandists wanted to discourage by suggesting that the only way Germany could lose was through treason.

1938 Nazi Editorial Cartoon on the USA

After the Munich Agreement that turned over the Sudetenland to Germany, the U.S. grew increasingly worried about Germany.  The German side generally reacted vehemently to any criticism from abroad. This editorial cartoon appeared in the Wiener Neueste Nachrichten of 29 October 1938.

The caption loosely translates as “Clean up your own mess!”  A Jewish looking figure from the U.S. is about to dispatch a message to Europe, only to find a broom sent from Europe to clean up America’s problems.  The items in the mess are Chicago (gangsters), strike, corruption, bribery, a communist bomb, unemployment, and sacks of money.

A Nazi Cartoon from 1943 on Lynching in the USA

As I look for one thing, I sometimes come across other interesting material to add to existing pages. Today I’m adding a vivid caricature to the page on Lustige Blätter, a weekly satirical magazine, showing a Black being lynched. Although the Nazis viewed blacks as inferior, they sometimes pointed out contradictions in the United States.

In this case, the suggestion is that the United States is hypocritical in complaining about Nazi treatment of the Jews, given what it does to American Blacks.

Another 1939 Speech by Josef Bürckel

I tend to translate things that strike me as interesting as I'm working on my research (currently the uses to which the Germans put American rhetoric during the Nazi period). I've been going through newspapers from Austria after the Anschluß to see how, for example, FDR's speeches were handled. I also recently started a page of rhetoric by Nazi Gauleiter, the party's regional potentates. Their material is rather hard to find. Today, I'm adding a March 1939 speech by Gauleiter Bürckel of Vienna which takes on economic issues. He basically announces price controls. I'm interested in this kind of material because it illustrates what the Nazis were doing at the local level, as opposed to the national level that we know more about.

The illustration is a newspaper cartoon published shortly after Bürckel's speech.

The cartoon claims that German commerce must become honest. Jews are being swept away.

New Caricatures from "Der Stuermer"

I recently provided some images for a filmmaker. I'm adding six of them to the pages on Der Stürmer, Julius Streicher's anti-Semitic weekly. These come from 1932-1934. Some are on the pre-1933 page, others on the 1933-1945 page. Two examples:

Winston Churchill in Nazi Propaganda

The latest addition is a collection of Nazi propaganda about Winston Churchill, which includes a wide range of images from 1933-1944. It will accompany an essay I'm working on.

1934 Cartoons from Kladderadatsch

I've added a page of 1934 cartoons from Kladderadatsch, a leading German satirical weekly. Several portray Germany as seeking peace while the rest of the world arms. There are also cartoons on the Night of the Long Knives, the evils of the Jews, and the threat of communism.

Two examples. One claims that the increase in the Negro and Jewish population is causing great concern in the United States. The second suggests that a peace agreement between France and the Soviet Union is not likely to bring peace to Europe.

New Covers from Lustige Blätter

Lustige Blätter was a weekly magazine of humor and satire. I already have quite a bit of visual material from the magazine on the site, but am occasionally adding more. Today, I added two covers from 1941.