Simplicissimus, No 51, 16th December 1942, Back Cover

Simplicissimus No. 51, 16th December 1942 - Backcover, 47 Jahrgang. (Years of publication) (The name is a Latin term meaning simplest and is the name given to the protagonist of a 17th-century novel, Der Abenteuerliche Simplicissimuss, in which a naive and innocent boy with the name Siplicissimus, navigates a corrupt 17th-century Europe). Simplicissimus was a long-running political satire magazine published continuously from 1896 through to September 1944, when, as for the majority of print publications in the Third Reich, paper shortages forced it to cease. The magazine was popular and known for its biting satire, attacking bourgeois morality, the church, civil servants, lawyers and the military. During the Weimar period it attacked the politics of the left and the right equally, including numerous Adolf Hitler caricatures, and these continued into 1933 even after the Nazis regime assumed power. However, later in 1933, Simplicissimus underwent Gleichschalting - the process of coordination and Nazification, which forced publications to align with National Socialist ideology and state control. This involved replacing journalists who didn't conform, sacking Jewish or those of non-Aryan descent and ensuring that all content served approved Nazi objectives. Following this Simplicissimus published increasing antisemitic, anti-British and anti-American material which hardened once Germany was at war. Simplicissimus was published from 4th April 1896 to No 37 to the 13th September 1944. The cover picture shows the Statue of Liberty as a skeletal figure draped in the American flag while beckoning with its skeletal arms and hands to the distance. The title and text reads: The Statue of Liberty to France - Come, children, into my arms!'
The cartoon depicts the United States as a skeletal, false, and predatory version of liberty and was a warning to the occupied French that American involvement would bring death and destruction rather than freedom. It suggests that the American ideal of freedom is a source of death. It is presented as a monster, an empty promise with only bones remaining, its beckoning arms and accompanying text function as a cynical and threatening invitation. This twisted welcome a warning to the French people, suggesting that embracing American liberation will lead them to ruin, not safety

Accompanying Beckoning Bones Bring Cynical Depicts Draped Function Ideal Invitation Involvement Long-running Predatory Promise Rather Remaining Simplicissimus Skeletal Source Suggesting Suggests Threatening Twisted Warning

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