Anti-Nazi drawing published in the PM newspaper The Awakening
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 20.000 inches (50.8 cm) | Width: 15.000 inches (38.1 cm)
Creator(s)
- William Sharp (Artist)
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
- Sharp, William, 1900-1961.
Subjects
- Newspapers--New York (State)--New York--Political cartoons.
- Anti-Nazi movement--United States--Political cartoons.
Genre
- Object
- Art