Background: These cartoons come from a book published at the end of 1939. The cartoons selected all make the claim that Germany was an innocent nation on which war had been forced. Unlike a 1934 book of cartoons, not a single one of the cartoons in this book portrays Hitler. He had become the all-powerful Führer.
The source: Ernst Herbert Lehmann, Mit Stift und Gift. Zeitgeschichte in der Karikatur(Berlin: Carl Stephenson Verlag, 1939).
by Ernst Herbert Lehmann
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“Keep it up, Mr. Churchill, and we’ll soon be doing business together.” Source: Simplicissimus, 6 August 1939 |
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“Business is business! It makes no difference whether it has to do with the crowning of a king or incitement to war.” Source: Der Stürmer,November 1939 |
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The world battle against the Jews. In a prophetic drawing, an English newspaper shows who will lose this struggle. Source: Daily Express(London), 14 November 1938 |
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A terrible nightmare of a French armaments maker: “Germany and France have come to an agreement!” Source: Brennessel,21 August 1934 |
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Europe can have peace if Germany and France can agree. Source: Washington Post,7 December 1938 |
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The campaign of lies. The democracies have called on their most loyal troops to encircle Germany. Source: Simplicissimus,9 April 1939 |
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At the Polish border. Source: Kladderadatsch,10 September 1939 |
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Chamberlain in the House of Commons. In the top frame, Polish police are attacking a German school in Poland. At the bottom, Chamberlain is saying: “I can only admire the remarkable calm and intelligent restraint of the Polish government.” Source: Kladderadatsch,20 August 1939 |
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