Anti-Nazi drawing published in the PM newspaper The Awakening

Identifier
irn4742
Language of Description
English
Alt. Identifiers
  • 1991.182.15
Dates
1 Jan 1934 - 31 Dec 1934
Level of Description
Item
Source
EHRI Partner

Extent and Medium

overall: Height: 20.000 inches (50.8 cm) | Width: 15.000 inches (38.1 cm)

Creator(s)

Biographical History

Leon Schleifer was born in 1900 in Germany. He served in the German army at the end of World War I (1914-1918). He became a political cartoonist and his work was published in the anti-Nazi press. He also specialized in courtroom trial sketches. After the appointment of Hitler as Chancellor in 1933, Schliefer emigrated to the United States. He changed his name to William Sharp and continued his career as an editorial cartoonist and illustrator. His work was published in the New York Times, Life Magazine, and other publications. He died in 1961, age sixty-one years.

Archival History

The drawing was aquired by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1991.

Acquisition

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection

Scope and Content

Dietrich Eckart was one of Hitler's earliest admirers. He died in 1923, but he left a testament. It is the poem, "GERMANY AWAKE!" full of inflammatory stuff. Well, this picture shows how Germany has awakened: a blood-thirsty maniac with a smoking pistol, plowing through heaps of dead. I completed this drawing in 1934, about the time of the Blood Purge.

Conditions Governing Access

No restrictions on access

Conditions Governing Reproduction

Restrictions on use

Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements

Almost full length portrait of Nazi soldier with smoking pistol walking over human bodies.

upper right corner, in pencil, "Deutschland ist erwacht / GERMANY IS AWAKENED"

People

Subjects

Genre

This description is derived directly from structured data provided to EHRI by a partner institution. This collection holding institution considers this description as an accurate reflection of the archival holdings to which it refers at the moment of data transfer.