NAZI-ERA ANTISEMITIC PROPAGANDA POSTER
Nazi propaganda cartoon by Seppla (Josef Plank), a political cartoonist. Germany, date uncertain [probably during World War II].
Beginning in the 1920s, Nazi propagandists promoted the
antisemitic myth that Jews were engaged in a massive conspiracy to take over the world. This false notion alleged that “international Jewry” used various people and groups as part of a plan for global conquest. At the time, an octopus extending its tentacles over the globe was a common visual metaphor for this myth.
Seppla likely created this cartoon in the early 1940s, when Nazi Germany was at
war with Great Britain. The cartoon shows British politician, Winston Churchill, as the octopus. Above the octopus's head is the Jewish Star of David. The tentacles seem to be losing their grip on the world. In the cartoon, Europe is shown as being free from under the octopus's control.
In Seppla’s cartoon, the octopus seems to symbolize both the antisemitic myth of "international Jewry" and Great Britain. The image suggests that Churchill is a tool of the alleged “conspiracy.” It also suggests that both Jews and Great Britain will be ultimately defeated.
