#ComicsHateNazis

Today may be Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest, but my mind is still spinning with anger and fear from the events in Charlottesville last week. I am outraged by our President and the KKK, Nazi sympathy whose flames he has been stoking since before he began his campaign. I am horrified by the violence, deeply disturbed by the chants and ideology of the Nazis and white supremacists. I am beyond saddened by the tragic, senseless deaths of Heather Heyer and the two state troopers. I am thinking of my grandfather, who fought in World War II.

I am thinking of my Jewish community, who thought we had put the worst of anti Semitism behind us. I am thinking of my larger American family, full of African Americans and LGBTQs and all sorts of other beautiful unique valid minorities, who are afraid and traumatized.

We Jews, like so many cultures and religions, are storytellers. Our most epic stories–particularly the story of the Exodus, which we retell every year on Passover–are what make us who we are. They shape our values and our identity.

Most people don’t realize that the creators of Superman, Batman, the Avengers, X-Men and many others were created by Jews. In the 1930’s anti Semitism was rampant and most Jewish young adults – many of whom were first-generation Americans – weren’t accepted into universities, and writers and artists weren’t accepted into art studios and newspapers. So Jewish publishing and distributing companies – infrastructure that would become DC and Marvel – hired them.

The Jews who built the comic book industry – Joe Simon, Jack Kirby, Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, Bob Kane, and so many others – they were a generation of storytellers who changed America forever.

As they faced anti-Semitism among their own peers, and watched as the Third Reich slowly invaded Europe, they did not stand idly by. These Jewish Americans used their pens and the newfound popularity in their comic strips to send a clear message to America: we stand for freedom, equality and justice. The Nazis are the opposite of such values, and must be defeated.

They didn’t have the #Resist hashtag but it shows just as clearly.

And now these heroes are American icons, symbols of American values and heroism.

George Santayana famously said, “Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.” Inspired by this idea, as well as Gail Simone spreading the hashtag #ComicsHateNazis earlier this week on Twitter, I wanted to share some of my favorite books about Jews building the comic book industry, as well as some of their most famous stories, as suggestions for those might be interested in learning more or revisiting some favorites.

Please note – I am very aware of the fact that white supremacists and Nazis are against all non-white minorities and not just Jews. There are hundreds of fantastic minority writers and artists out there who should be seen, heard and supported. This is just the “subgenre” I know best.

PPS – this is not an exhaustive list or history. I’m trying to nutshell it all – see the end of this article for more books on the subject if you’re interested.

 

Superheroes Fighting Nazis: Jews #Resist

Captain America #1 (1940)

If you want to see Jewish anti-Nazi rage expressed in the forms of comic, you can’t get much better than Captain America’s debut issue, with Steve Rogers, a literal symbol of America, punching Hitler in the face. Joe Simon and Jack Kirby (real name Jacob Kurtzberg), both Jews, make it very clear who the enemy is here.

Oh, and it was published in December 1940 – a whole year before Pearl Harbor.

How’s that for arguing against America’s neutrality and indifference.

Cap’s earliest stories all feature the titular character and his sidekick Bucky taking down Nazis, from Hitler himself to American spies to Red Skull, who, unlike his Hugo Weaving film counterpart, is always brandishing swastikas all over his uniform.

One can’t overstate the chutzpah of publishing a comic book with a literal symbol of America punching Adolf Hitler in the face. Hitler was a world power; he had thousands of supporters here in America; and anti-Semitism was at an all-time high in America. Thousands of Nazi supporters flooded New York in rallies in the 30’s, and there are studies from the era showing that Americans believed that Jewish children shouldn’t be rescued from Europe, and that Jewish Americans were more suspicious than Germans.

These Jewish creators – who put their real names on the cover – risked their and their family’s safety in order to not be silent. To stand up and say – This is NOT our America. Our America is not complacent in the face of fascism. There are no “fine people” on that side. In our country, Nazism and white supremacy aren’t welcome. Not ever.

Simon and Kirby didn’t pull any punches. One of the most interesting stories (to me) is when Red Skull dies by poison intended for his victims – and Cap could have stopped him:

And their safety actually was threatened – there is an amazing story about several Nazis who once came to the Marvel building and threatened to beat up the guy who was drawing superheroes punching Hitler. That man, the artist of Captain America, was Jack Kirby. Did he cower in fear? Nope. He did what Captain America would have done. Kirby stopped his work, calmly and silently rolled up his sleeves and walked downstairs. By the time he got there, the cowards were gone.

Superman. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, two Jews from Cleveland who created the most famous superhero of all time, changed American pop culture forever, with only $120 to show for it (see the below books for more on this tragic story). The man from another planet with a Hebrew name (Kal-El) and Moses-like backstory; he fits in seamlessly with other Americans; he’s the ultimate Jewish/immigrant fantasy.

At first Supes was an everyman’s hero who took down greedy fat cats and other rich bad guys; he started selling a million copies a month. But once World War II hit, Siegel and Shuster had a bit of a conundrum. Superman could solve World War II in an instant, but they didn’t want to insult the American soldiers risking their lives for their country. So even though Superman takes out Nazi spies he didn’t face Hitler as often as Cap did. But in the midst of the war–again, before the US got involved–Siegel and Shuster couldn’t resist, and came out with this two page story in Look Magazine, in which Superman picks up Hitler and Stalin and ends the war, and they are convicted for  crimes against humanity.

Superman: What If Superman Ended the War? (1940)

 

Of all the Superman comics I’ve read from the 40’s, this one from 1942 below, “Conquest of A City” most blatantly depicts the slaughter of Jews in Eastern Europe. (Remember that at this time the Nazis’ horrific attempt to exterminate the Jews, among other minorities, was not fully known). The Nazis invade Metropolis, in what the news think is a publicity stunt, but is actually real due to an American traitor.

In a chilling scene, Clark Kent is forced by the Nazis to dig his own grave, but realizes, as Superman, that they are actually going to shoot him. When the Nazis are discovered and driven out of town, it causes the nation to wake up from their indifference. #Resist.

Superman: The Conquest of a City (1942)

PS – Wonder Woman and Batman

You didn’t think I could forget these two, right? Even though Wonder Woman wasn’t created by a Jewish writer, she still gets involved – her alter ego Diana Prince is a nurse, and Wonder Woman still gets to punch Nazis. You don’t have to be Jewish to hate facism and what it stands for! This lovely panel is from WW #2 by her creator (and inventor of the polygraph) William Moulton Marsten:

Finding anti-Nazi panels from Batman is a little tougher – but not because the creators were any less anti-Nazi. Even though his creators Bob Kane and Bill Finger were Jews, Gotham did not seem as embroiled in real-life issues like Metropolis.  Like most pulp stories, Batman seems to take place in an alternate universe from our own (in the early comics at least), and unlike Supes and Cap, he rarely fights Nazis, and he never fights Hitler directly.

And yet, in one issue, Nazis come to Gotham City and….that was a poor choice.

But my all time favorite Batman #ComicsHateNazis moment comes from Batman and Captain America by John Byrne in a 1990’s Marvel/DC crossover…

And then THE JOKER beats up Red Skull.

Can we talk about this for a second? Joker says he “may be a criminal lunatic, but I’m an American criminal lunatic!” Even the frigging Joker, who has done unspeakable horrors, knows the ultimate limit – and while of course this is meant to be somewhat humorous, it also tells us something very important: the truth remains that fascism is never, ever okay in the eyes of Americans. Even the most maniacal Americans. 

Holocaust

Maus: A Survivor’s Tale, in two volumes, by Art Spiegelman is arguably one of the most famous, most important graphic novels of all time. It legitimized comic books and graphic novels as a medium to tell important stories, but it also shows how certain events, like the Holocaust, need to be seen as much as read when learning about it.

Spiegelman portrays his interviews with his father Vladek about his experiences before and through the Holocaust survivor. A master storyteller, Spiegelman combines the autobiographical nature of his story – he recorded the interviews and uses his father’s exact words – with the punch and visceral reactions that only a visual medium can do. Spiegelman focuses not only on the Holocaust story but the meaning of memory, reconstructing this horrific narrative, and his own place in the story as Vladek’s son.

You may have noticed that the Germans are portrayed as cats, and the Jews as mice (other countries are shown as animals as well). One might ask why – Hitler called the Jews vermin, and yet it also shows how everyone involved became less than human. It is a harrowing, chilling story. It is also required reading.

But seriously…if you take nothing else from this article, please read Maus. Or read it again.

Most people know that Magneto is a Holocaust survivor, made even more famous by Ian McKellen and Michael Fassbender’s respective portrayals of the character. Even though he was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the character originally didn’t have a Holocaust background until Chris Claremont. Don’t be fooled by the name.

Claremont lived in a kibbutz in Israel where he met Holocaust survivors, and once he returned to America and worked at Marvel, he reworked Magneto’s origin story. There are many instances of Erik’s Holocaust past throughout X-Men comics in the 80’s, and it is even revealed in one story that he worked for Israel as a Nazi hunter. In another issue, he and Kitty Pryde (her last name is no mistake in my opinion) attend a gathering of Holocaust survivors together.

X-Men: Magneto Testament by Greg Pak and Carmine Di Giandomenico takes Magneto’s backstory to a whole new level. This tremendous work, which follows Max Eisenhardt’s horrific journey, before his mutant powers activated – it focuses on the boy he was and the family he had.

I literally can’t recommend this story enough, not just because of the quality of the writing, but because it serves as a visual history of the main events in the Holocaust. The history is so fully researched (and yet seamlessly integrated into the story) that there are lesson plans at the back – and I have used it many times in my religious school classroom. 

The early parts of the book, which focus on rising Nazism and radicalism in Germany, are particularly disturbing to me right now.

After the Holocaust, superheroes still beat up Nazis – but it wasn’t the same. The Nazis have become the ultimate bad guys, or at least they were in fiction–but they have emerged back into our present.

In the years between the 40’s and now, comic books have come a very long way. It’s by no means perfect, but the diversity of what makes America great (actually great) is far better represented now in comic  books — both on and behind the page — than it was almost eighty years ago. In the 40’s you couldn’t imagine a comic book about a romance between two elderly black women. And yet, here Bingo Love is.

But we need to be vigilant–because the Nazis are back. And just like Joe Simon, and Jack Kirby, and Joe Shuster, and Jerry Siegel, and Stan Lee, and the publishers and distributers of DC and Marvel Comics, we need to stand up and not remain complicit and silent. We need to say just as loudly as they did – even, especially if it means risking something – that fascism, white supremacy, that all kinds of oppression and hate, has no place in America. Not now, not ever.

That is the America we envision.

That is the America we fight for.

#Resist

Footnote: Resources for more

CBR lists lots of times superheroes punched Nazis in this great article (I tried to keep it to the 40’s, when Jews were writing and publishing these stories in real time)

Also:

Washington Post: Captain America was punching Nazis in 1941. Here’s why that was so daring.

Gizmodo: Superhero Comics’ Long History of Beating Up Nazis

And if you want to learn more about the history of the comic book industry:

From Krakow to Krypton by Arie Kaplan is basically the book I wish I had written. It’s an excellent, engagingly written history from the 1940’s to today and has great visuals and comic book excerpts.

 

 

 

Comic Book Nation by Bradford Wright is an overview of comic book history that doesn’t particularly focus on Jews in the comic book industry but certainly includes them and has a lot of fascinating information.

 

 

 

 

Up Up and Oy Vey by Simcha Weinstein includes a lot of the information in Kaplan’s book, but also focuses on the culture and values found in these stories and Jewish characters. While I find some of his connections to be a little far reaching – it’s unlikely that the A on Captain America’s mask was an intentional nod to the Golem, for example – it’s certainly worth the read.

 

 

 

 

 

If you have more recommendations, thoughts or comments please leave a message below!