A trivia question for WW-II buffs. (vanity).

RCA2000

[KarlInOhio]

(Basically, I guess the cartoon was stating the devastation that Communism did to this area of Germany and that the taxi and driver were representing communism and it's destruction while the passenger was representing the voters the countrymen willfully asking to be taken and given Communism. Just my take on it.

If it was from 1941 or 1942 as the original poster stated, then it was before the Soviets took over in 1945.

[Rashputin]

"(before they BECAME communist themselves)"

They were already mostly communists. They portrayed the war in Europe as something that we should ignore until after Pearl Harbor and didn't actually start to portray Hitler as an enemy of the US until after he attacked Russia.

[katana]

Can’t make a guess without seeing who the artist was trying to depict as the passenger being driven by Death to Berlin. Stalin, Joe Kennedy (JFK’s ambassador papa who was a not-so-closet Nazi sympathizer), a Japanese with glasses and buck teeth to symbolize the fresh alliance between Germany and Japan, or even a staunch isolationist like Charles Lindberg, might all be topical in that period and a possible subject of such a cartoon.

[MustKnowHistory]

Arthur Szyk did a lot of WWII political cartoons. His pictures
have a way of staying with you:

http://rutlandhs.k12.vt.us/jpeterso/Szykpage.htm

[Zman516]

I’m guessing if the man getting into the cab was an American, it was demonstrating how conquering Germany was going to be paved with death and destruction

I think you're right.

In September 1941 the vast majority of US citizens were very much opposed to involvement in the European war. At that time the Germans had everything going their way and looked invincible.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Google “Unter den Linden” and Nazi. Unter den Linden Strasse was a major boulevard in Berlin, sort like a Prussian Champs-Élysées. It was lined with lime (Linden) trees and museums, parks and cultural artifacts. Hitler had the lime trees, some over 250 years old, removed and had it lined with Nazi flags. It would be like cutting down the Japanese cherry trees around the Washington Monument and replacing them with Obama logos.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Unter der Linden was also the title of a wildly sentimental medieval love poem by the master Minnesinger, Walther von der Vogelweide. Minnesang were sentimental, generally courtly, love poems. Although the settings of Minnesang are generally the court and topics love between nobles, the words of this poem are placed in the mouth a peasant girl, the status of her beau left to imagination of the listener. Sort of in the vein of pastoral love poems. I think the setting for the boulevard was inspired by this poem. The poem is Middle High German which would have been just comprehensible to 18th century Prussians. (Hence Under der Linden, vs. Unter den Linden) making it even more appealing (sort of like Shakespeare is charming to Americans) in the age of German Romanticism.

[lapsus calami]

In September 1941 the vast majority of US citizens were very much opposed to involvement in the European war. At that time the Germans had everything going their way and looked invincible.

 

Yes, more than people these days even know. But it must be realized that opposition was made up of various blocs not unlike what exists today. Decades ago New York city had in the neighborhood of 11 newspapers and I am fortunate to have a few complete copies from back in that time period. The editorial sections are rather revealing. Just like today, large American cities like New York were (and remain) hotbeds for leftists, marxists and assorted fascist types and letters to the editor reflected those positions rather well. Change some names and places up and many of those letters look exactly like something that could have been written by a leftist troll yesterday. Always interesting how much things change, they remain the same. If you ever have opportunity to check out some microfilmed copies of newspapers from a large eastcoast or westcoast city in the time frame of about 1933-1942 do so, it's rather eye-opening.

 

 

[Rca2000]

Sorry I took so long to get back—I am at work, and cona onley get on here during my breaks or lunch hour. I am on my last break right now.

IIRC, my memory seems to recall that it was a “tough looking guy”, in some kind of uniform, possibly a Nazi one, who was the passenger. He was NOT a jap, IIRC.

As to why it sticks in my memory after all of these years—I don’ really know. I just know it does—and I would like to see it again—and it’s meaning. I was a Junuior in HS then.