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wartime caricaturist
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...that art is
my aim ;...
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...art is...
... my means".
- Arthur Szyk, 1944
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Art has often played a crucial role in wartime propaganda, serving to stress the justness of one nation or cause by contrasting it with the enemy’s depravity, deceitfulness, and barbarity. To boost morale at home, while sanctifying the need for military intervention, propagandists seek to “unmask” the opponents’ evil intentions, often portraying or dehumanizing them as criminals, beasts, or monsters. Humor too plays an important role by reducing fears of the enemy’s invincibility.
Adolf Hitler’s toothbrush mustache and outlandish ideas made him a perfect target for cartoonists. Szyk’s many depictions of the Nazi leader range from the comic to the terrifying. His first cartoons of the Nazi leader, dating back to the mid-1930s, show Hitler as an enemy of the Jews. After the outbreak of World War II, Szyk caricatured Hitler as a madman bent on territorial conquest, a string-pulling conspirator manipulating Axis leaders, and Death’s faithful companion. For Szyk, Hitler represented more than just a lone ranting politician; he was the political expression of a militaristic Germany. During the war, Szyk was a full-time soldier in the war against the Axis powers and sought to win support for the Allied cause.
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