“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.”