By the early summer of 1941 the Nazi war machine appeared to be unstoppable. It sat astride Europe from France to the Balkans and Hitler was preparing to move to seize his prize, the objective of the war from the outset: the Soviet Union. On June 22, 1941, a force of nearly four million troops from Germany and its allies fell upon the Soviets in Operation Barbarossa, the campaign to destroy Stalin’s communist regime. Hitler, expecting an easy victory, had said of the Soviet Union that “you only have to kick in the door and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down.”
On June 25, 1941, three days after the opening of the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Geisel published this comic commenting on Hitler’s aspirations in the attack and its potential results. He chose the motif of Hitler the taxidermist to convey this message. This setting presents Hitler as a collector of trophies, who hauls in one country after the next so as to slaughter it, stuff it, and add it to his menagerie. Here Hitler seems to expect that Russia will be no different than the game that has come before it.
Closer inspection of Hitler’s trophy was reveals something about the way Geisel saw the war. France, with the large moose antlers, seems to be the biggest prize. Not only is it larger than the rest of the perplexed creatures, but it also enjoys a privileged central place at the top of Hitler’s wall. This is likely a reflection of the shock of the rapid collapse of France, a country that had borne the brunt of the fighting against the Germans in the First World War, in just six weeks during the course of the spring of 1940.
Also notable is the inclusion of countries subjugated by Germany before the beginning of the war, as well as two German allies. Austria, annexed into the Reich in 1938 following a popular plebiscite, is portrayed as simply one of many countries conquered by the Fuehrer rather than an accomplice. Likewise, German ally Romania is presented as a victim of Nazism. Only Italy appears decidedly out of place with the look of a cat run over by a car. Herr Hitler has elected to mount the cat all the same.
In contrast to the beheaded herbivores on the wall, Geisel chose to portray Russia in this cartoon as a bear marked with what appears to be a hammer and sickle. The bear has long been a symbol of the Russian nation. This bear, though, seems particularly eager to resist, digging his claws into the ground and eyeing a straining Hitler with the look of a beast that has spotted dinner. Geisel, no doubt, is suggesting that Hitler might have a bit of trouble dragging Russia to the chopping block. The good doctor, of course, was entirely correct.