DIE TWEEDE WÊRELD-OORLOG IN SPOTPRENTE "The Second World War in Cartoons" (1946)

Publisher's illustrated boards with cloth spine.

Binding sound. Contents clean except for tape ghosts on the title page.

A scarce volume of the collected WWII cartoons by Russian-South African cartoonist Victor Ivanoff (1909-1990). Ivanoff was 27 years old when he came to South Africa in 1936. He was initially recruited by The Rand Daily Mail but because of his poor English was misdirected to the offices of Die Vaderland. When they saw his portfolio they told him he was at the right place, and so he stayed on as their cartoonist for the next 37 years.

If you want a quick grasp of the dynamics and context of historical events then you must look at cartoons from the period. Ivanoff's cartoons are highly effective in this regard. In one cartoon Big Jan (Jan Smuts) asks Little Jan (Jan Hofmeyr) whether the Nation is still behind them "in support". Little Jan answers while looking over his shoulder at the angry mob of Boer women pursuing them "Yes, I fear more so than ever!".  

In another cartoon Smuts is on a boat with Churchill at the helm going down a waterfall. Smuts is shown holding a lady in Voortrekker dress (representing South Africa) who wants to jump out before they are lost. He asks her, "Why do you want to leave us my dear, we are all brothers and sisters."

"Smuts once declared that he was standing in the shoes of Paul Kruger", this image depicts Smuts standing in very large shoes but with the toes pointing in the opposite direction that he is walking.

Smuts is shown walking into the "Dictator Club" with the caption reading "The New Member". Hitler welcomes him with open arms and Mussolini salutes him while Stalin is pulling out a chair for the new member.

Deneys Reitz is telling the reader to keep quiet as a new nation is being born. Smuts is depicted as the hen looking down at the nest only to see that no eggs have been laid. Churchill the rooster, representing British Imperialism, is shown standing next to his hen.

In another one Smuts is shown handing a rifle with fixed bayonet to a black South African. A spirit on horseback from the Anglo-Boer War appears behind him asking, "Jannie, what on earth are you doing now?" 

Smuts comes running down the path to 10 Downing street with Churchill, in a dress, waiting with open arms to embrace him. The caption reads "Field Marshall Smuts is spending his summer holidays at home."

Hitler is shown wounded and dying in the desert. A group of vultures, representing Egypt, Syria, Turkey and Paraguay, are sitting on a wall looking down on him. The caption reads "Now the vultures declare war!"

Ivanoff's cartoons illustrate how hugely unpopular Smuts was with Afrikaner nationalists, so much so that the members of his party placed the blame of their loss in the 1947 elections squarely on the shoulders of that Russian cartoonist of Die Vaderland.