“Salesman Comes Back from the Road” (August, 1936)
by Gerald Aloysius (Jerry) Doyle, Jr. (1898-1986)
14 x 17 in., ink on board
Coppola Collection

Jerry Doyle spent most of his career at The Philadelphia Record, The Philadelphia Daily News(1951) and The Philadelphia Inquirer. He retired in 1973. Doyle’s support for the New Deal meant that his cartoons generally expressed support for President Roosevelt, whom he depicted as tall, imposing, powerful, and larger-than-life. Doyle’s early and continual criticism towards Hitler and Mussolini made him the only American cartoonist to be put on the Nazi hit list. He wrote the book “According to Doyle – A Cartoon History of World War II” (1943). His son, who carried his name, was also a part-time cartoonist (1926-2009).

James Farley was the mastermind of FDR’s early campaigns, and was particularly effective during the campaign of the first re-election in 1936. He was one of the first to use polling effectively.

Historians of political polls know of the 1936 fiasco of the Literary Digest poll, which was forecasting a big win for PDR’s opponent, Alf Landon.  The Digest was the gospel of its day, but Farley had a different impression, declaring publically, “Landon will only carry Maine and Vermont. 7 electoral votes.”

And on election day, he was exactly correct.

“The Twilight of the Gods” (February 16, 1945)
by William (Bill) Crawford (1913-1982)
20 x 22 in., ink and crayon on heavy paper
Coppola Collection

Crawford worked as a sports cartoonist and for the Washington Daily Newsand the Washington Postfrom 1936-38. He joined the Newark Newsas an editorial cartoonist and his cartoons were distributed to more than 700 daily newspapers by the Newspaper Enterprise Association. He was an active member of the National Cartoonists Society, serving as its president and vice-president. In 1956, 1957, 1958, and 1963 he was awarded “Best Editorial Cartoon” by the National Cartoonist Society, and in 1973 he received their Silver T-Square Award. Crawford retired in 1977.

The bombing raids on the German city of Dresden started on February 13, 1945. Many thousands of civilian lives would be lost in the firestorm created by the Allied bombers.

In four raids between February 13-15, 1945, 722 heavy bombers of the British Royal Air Force (RAF) and 527 of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) dropped more than 3,900 tons of high-explosive bombs and incendiary devices on the city.  An estimated 25,000 people were killed, although larger casualty figures have been claimed. Three more USAAF air raids followed in March and April.

This was the beginning of the end of Hitler’s vision of a master race.

Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf, “Everything we admire on this earth today—science and art, technology and inventions—is only the creative product of a few peoples and originally perhaps one race [the “Aryans”]. On them depends the existence of this whole culture. If they perish, the beauty of this earth will sink into the grave with them.”

Laws were enacted quite early, start in July 1933, to permit the government to sterilize anyone who suffered from so-called “hereditary” illnesses such as “feeble-mindedness,” schizophrenia, manic-depressive illness, genetic epilepsy, Huntington’s chorea, genetic blindness, deafness, and some forms of alcoholism.

The idea was not a new one. Sterilization laws existed in several other countries at the time, including the United States. Between 1907 and 1930, 29 US states passed compulsory sterilization laws, and about 11,000 women were sterilized. Many states also had laws that banned marriages between white people and people of color—including African Americans, Native Americans, and Asians. Both sets of laws were prompted by a desire to eliminate “strains that are a burden to the nation or to themselves, and to raise the standard of humanity by the suppression of the progeny of the defective classes.” The Nazis took that goal much further than Americans ever did.

Lebensborn, which means “source of life”, was a program created by Himmler, Hitler’s right-hand man. It was designed to boost the German population by encouraging citizens, especially SS members, to have more children. SS officers came under pressure to have four children, inside or outside marriage. Ten maternity homes were set up across Germany where 8-12,000 Lebensborn Kinder were born. Some stayed with their mothers, but many were adopted by families of SS officers. About 60% were born to unmarried mothers, the rest to wives of SS men. As the Third Reich expanded, Lebensborn homes were set up across Europe. In Norway some 10,000 babies were born, most fathered by SS officers to Norwegian mothers. There were also cases of children with “Aryan” characteristics being kidnapped from their homes in occupied territories.

“News Headline” (September 15, 1939)
by Gerald Aloysius (Jerry) Doyle, Jr. (1898-1986)
15 x 18 in., ink on board
Coppola Collection

Jerry Doyle spent most of his career at The Philadelphia Record, The Philadelphia Daily News(1951) and The Philadelphia Inquirer. He retired in 1973. Doyle’s support for the New Deal meant that his cartoons generally expressed support for President Roosevelt, whom he depicted as tall, imposing, powerful, and larger-than-life. Doyle’s early and continual criticism towards Hitler and Mussolini made him the only American cartoonist to be put on the Nazi hit list. He wrote the book “According to Doyle – A Cartoon History of World War II” (1943). His son, who carried his name, was also a part-time cartoonist (1926-2009).

During 1933–1945, Wehrmacht courts issued, conservatively estimated, 25000 death warrants, of which 18000 to 20000 were executed. Declared forms of treason included speaking against the state. The war of words with UK PM Chamberlain was severe, and included calling out Hitler on breaking his earlier promises about what he would and would not do. On September 13-14, 1939, two weeks after the invasion of Poland that started WW2, Hitler broke his often-made promise not to bomb civilian populations in “open towns.”

“Above all else, Hitler was a media figure who gained popularity and controlled his country through speeches and publicity. Far from being a consistent and undeviatingly purposeful politician, he was temperamental, changeable, insecure, allergic to criticism, and often indecisive and uncertain in a crisis.” – RJ Evans, in The Nation, February 28, 2017.

To quote Hitler, “after ten years of hard prison, a man is lost to the people’s community anyway. Thus what to do with such a guy is either put him into a concentration camp, or kill him. In latest times the latter is more important, for the sake of deterrence.”

“The First Robin of Spring” (March, 1942)
by William (Bill) Crawford (1913-1982)
17.5 x 19.5 in., ink and crayon on heavy paper
Coppola Collection

Crawford worked as a sports cartoonist and for the Washington Daily Newsand the Washington Postfrom 1936-38. He joined the Newark Newsas an editorial cartoonist and his cartoons were distributed to more than 700 daily newspapers by the Newspaper Enterprise Association. He was an active member of the National Cartoonists Society, serving as its president and vice-president. In 1956, 1957, 1958, and 1963 he was awarded “Best Editorial Cartoon” by the National Cartoonist Society, and in 1973 he received their Silver T-Square Award. Crawford retired in 1977.

On June 22, 1941, one year to the day after the fall of France, Hitler launched his attack on Russia in Operation Barbarossa. A fake build-up and saber-rattling at England was a deception and a way to surprise Stalin, and by mid-July the Nazis were within 200 miles of Moscow. On a few months later, the Japanese would attack the US at Pearl Harbor.

A severe rainy season slowed down the Germans that fall, and a severe winter for which they were ill-equipped held them in place. Unlike Napoleon in the face of a Soviet winter, who retreated, the Germans were ordered to stay, and probably only made the hardship worse.

The signs and expectations were there, then, for what would happen in the spring.

It was not until July 1942 that Hitler resumed his push to the east, into the upper middle-eastern oilfields of Baku, and towards the pipelines of Stalingrad in August.

“Invasion Plans” (March, 1942)
by William (Bill) Crawford (1913-1982)
16 x 21 in., ink and crayon on heavy paper
Coppola Collection

Crawford worked as a sports cartoonist and for the Washington Daily Newsand the Washington Postfrom 1936-38. He joined the Newark Newsas an editorial cartoonist and his cartoons were distributed to more than 700 daily newspapers by the Newspaper Enterprise Association. He was an active member of the National Cartoonists Society, serving as its president and vice-president. In 1956, 1957, 1958, and 1963 he was awarded “Best Editorial Cartoon” by the National Cartoonist Society, and in 1973 he received their Silver T-Square Award. Crawford retired in 1977.

On June 22, 1941, one year to the day after the fall of France, Hitler launched his attack on Russia in Operation Barbarossa. A fake build-up and saber-rattling at England was a deception and a way to surprise Stalin, and by mid-July the Nazis were within 200 miles of Moscow. On a few months later, the Japanese would attack the US at Pearl Harbor.

A severe rainy season slowed down the Germans that fall, and a severe winter for which they were ill-equipped held them in place. Unlike Napoleon in the face of a Soviet winter, who retreated, the Germans were ordered to stay, and probably only made the hardship worse.

The signs and expectations were there, then, for what would happen in the spring.

It was not until July 1942 that Hitler resumed his push to the east, into the upper middle-eastern oilfields of Baku, and towards the pipelines of Stalingrad in August.

“It Can’t Happen There” (December, 1944)
by William (Bill) Crawford (1913-1982)
18.5 x 22 in., ink and crayon on heavy paper
Coppola Collection

Crawford worked as a sports cartoonist and for the Washington Daily Newsand the Washington Postfrom 1936-38. He joined the Newark Newsas an editorial cartoonist and his cartoons were distributed to more than 700 daily newspapers by the Newspaper Enterprise Association. He was an active member of the National Cartoonists Society, serving as its president and vice-president. In 1956, 1957, 1958, and 1963 he was awarded “Best Editorial Cartoon” by the National Cartoonist Society, and in 1973 he received their Silver T-Square Award. Crawford retired in 1977.

In WW2, there was no Christmas truce as there was during WW1. On December 7, 1941, Pope Benedict XV suggested the idea of a truce. The countries and their commanders disagreed, but on December 24, 1914, after 5 hard months of conflict, British, French and German soldiers left their trenches and exchanged gifts, food, and stories, and playing soccer. Afraid of future fraternization and sympathies, any such suggestion of truce was threatened with disciplinary action. Robert Kennedy called for a Christmas truce in 1965, during the Vietnam War, which lasted 30 hours. The Tét Truce, celebrating the lunar new year, had typically been observed by the North and South Vietnamese during that war, although that was broken in 1968 (Tét Offensive).

The Battle of the Bulge began on December 16, 1944. The Germans called this “Operation Watch on the Rhine.” The US Press dubbed this “the battle of the bulge” because of the way the troop advancements appeared on the maps.

This was to be the last major German western offensive, and lasted 5 weeks, in the Ardennes forests of Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany. On December 24, the winter weather broke and the Allied air raids against this surprise attack halted the advance of the Nazis. Patton reached the front on the 26^th, and the offensive was considered broken by the next day.

“Out of the Sea, Like a Man’s Hand” (June 15, 1945)
by William (Bill) Crawford (1913-1982)
18 x 21 in., ink and crayon on heavy paper
Coppola Collection

Crawford worked as a sports cartoonist and for the Washington Daily Newsand the Washington Postfrom 1936-38. He joined the Newark Newsas an editorial cartoonist and his cartoons were distributed to more than 700 daily newspapers by the Newspaper Enterprise Association. He was an active member of the National Cartoonists Society, serving as its president and vice-president. In 1956, 1957, 1958, and 1963 he was awarded “Best Editorial Cartoon” by the National Cartoonist Society, and in 1973 he received their Silver T-Square Award. Crawford retired in 1977.

The caption is a Biblical quote (I Kings 18:44), meant to covey the sense of hope coming from the war in the Pacific. VE Day was in May 8, 1945, following the death of Adolf Hitler on April 30. The focus of the war moved to Japan. The famous flag-raising on Iwo Jima was in late February. Okinawa was the last big stronghold.

On June 12, 1945, US troops breached the last line of Japanese defense on Okinawa, a battle that had begun on April 1. The last remnants of Japanese resistance ended on June 21.