A book of "whispered jokes" against Hitler and the Nazi leadership circulating among the Germans - signed copy by ...

A book of "whispered jokes" against Hitler and the Nazi leadership circulating among the Germans - signed copy by the illustrator Karl Bartsch

Geflüstertes. Die Hitlerei im Volksmund - Whispered, Hitlerism among the people - a collection of "whispered jokes" - popular jokes in Nazi Germany against Hitler and the Nazi leadership, accompanied by caricatures, edited by Vox Populi, published by Heildelberg, Freiheit-Verlag - 1946 - first edition. Copy with printed sketch of title page design and signature of illustrator Karl Bertsch underneath. Meier designed the book's cover and even drew the caricatures in it.

"Whispered jokes" refers to jokes that the German population used to tell in whispers expressing contempt for Hitler and the Nazi leadership. The author, John Alexander Mayer, spent twelve years traveling around Nazi Germany and documented every "whispered joke" he heard. For example: "Mom who's that man there next to the arch?", "That's my leader child!", "Mom is that the man dad is always angry at?"... The reason Germans told them in whispers was because it was forbidden to publicly express contempt for the Führer or denounce him. the cover designed by Karl Bertsch reflects this through the silhouette and the caption "pst" - "shhh" in French.

In the preface written by editor Dr. Paul Ronge, he demonstrates how the power of whispered jokes could even outline the future. Long before Hitler and Mussolini collaborated as partners with common interests in the fascist Axis countries, jokes were circulated that united them into a single entity with identical intentions, and there are more examples.

In the whispered jokes, Germans consistently mocked Goebbels who was short, fat Goering, Hindenburg's two-facedness, Hitler's lies and fantasies about the "new order" in Europe, the rigidity of Germans - "you'll never see a smiling Nazi", the fact that every member of the Nazi party doesn't even trust their closest friends and everyone suspects everyone, the attempt to make the youth forget the Weimar Republic era, and more.

In fact, everything that was taboo in the eyes of the Nazi leadership was a subject for jokes among the people. The editor notes the interesting fact that a significant part of the "whispered jokes" were spread by Jews as an act of contempt for their persecutors seeking to destroy them, but they were quickly adopted among the German population itself.

The book contains hundreds of short, popular whispered jokes, accompanied by anti-Nazi caricatures by illustrator Karl Bertsch [1895 -1974] who also designed the book's cover - and as mentioned, the copy is with Bertsch's signature under the sketch of the cover design pasted on the page after the title page.

149 [1] p. 19 cm. Very good condition.