DE SPRINKGERMANEN PLAAG (EN DE STOUTE DINGEN DIE TOONTJE DEED) VERTELSELBOEK VOOR GROTE MENSEN
Amsterdam, G.W. Breughel, 1945. Item #42668
1st edition. Original illustrated color cartoon boards, oblong 12mo, [94] pages. Illustrations in dark blue and text in red. In Dutch. Title translates roughly as “The German-Hoppers Plague (and the Naughty Things They Did). A Storybook for Great People.”
In the best traditions of children’s literature and graphic novels, this 1945 work’s simplicity and comic illustrations connect with very young as well as adult readers. As a hardback comic book issued just after the war, the author-illustrator uses 170 “cute” comic panels with text to tell the story of the German invasion and occupation of the Netherlands, as well as Dutch resistance and then liberation, all via a witty comic format depicting the Nazis as a plague of grasshoppers.
Most characters–Hitler, other Nazis, Dutch fascists, Dutch Jews or brave resistance fighters–are depicted as children, often with a very slight altering of what would be the historically accurate text or symbol. For example, the Dutch fascist organization, the NSB, is identified as the NST; the bespectacled dark-haired boy is forced to wear a star of David that reads not Jode, but rather his name, Iesie; the swastikas are more of a crooked seriffed X; and Mein Kampf instead bears the title, “Mein Kam….PFF!” (“My Comb…Duh!”).
A full set of scans of all pages can be viewed online at http://www.lwkoppenol.nl/DeSprinkgermanenPlaag.htm
This work is cited with illustrations by Lambiek, a center for Dutch comics history, which notes that “When Holland was liberated, artists celebrated their freedom by publishing all kinds of parodies, ridiculing Germany…” (https://www.lambiek.net/dutchcomics/1940.htm).
The book was reissued 30 years later in 1975. OCLC-Worldcat lists not a single copy of the original book anywhere, and only a single copy of the 1975 reprint (1975 reprint is OCLC: 122262017, 1 copy located at the Nederlandse Bibliotheek in South Africa). Paper toning as expected, light rubbing to boards, faint stains to front cover and to margin of final page, really an outstanding and attractive copy of this exceedingly rare and engaging contemporary look at the Nazi occupation of Holland and its liberation. (Holo2-160-36A-PIFFIINNQQBBCC+).
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