1943.02.18 “Got’em Working Overtime”
by Carey Cassius Orr (1890-1967)
13.5 x 16 in., ink on board
Coppola Collection
Color Guide (10 x 12 in): A photo reduced copy of the drawing, printed using a light-activated chemical processes, was used to create a hand-colored and annotated color guide for printed the final cartoon.
Orr was a newspaper cartoonist originally from Ada, Ohio. He studied at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, while also being a semi-professional baseball pitcher. He began his newspaper career with the Chicago Examiner before becoming a fulltime editorial cartoonist with the Nashville Tennessean at age 24. He began his longtime association with the Chicago Tribune in 1917 and stayed with the paper for 46 years. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his editorial cartoons in 1961.
The period after the catastrophic loss at Stalingrad in February 1943 marked a significant shift in the tone and strategy of Nazi propaganda.
The Sportpalast Speech. Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels delivered his famous "Total War" speech on February 18, 1943, acknowledging recent setbacks and urging the German people to commit to an all-out effort to achieve victory. This speech was a pivotal moment, marking the first time the Nazi leadership publicly admitted to facing serious challenges. International press correspondents covered and analyzed the speech worldwide.
Goebbels emphasized that both Germany's survival and the survival of Western civilization were at stake, portraying the war as a defense against Bolshevism. His speech, and the propaganda campaign more broadly, aimed to evoke a sense of pride and duty, using rhetoric that glorified the German nation, its soldiers, and the perceived righteousness of their cause.
The campaign was designed to counter the growing disillusionment with the war and maintain public enthusiasm for the continued struggle. While the campaign initially had some success in rousing the population, it could not ultimately reverse the tide of the war. Germans increasingly looked for accurate information from foreign sources, and even Goebbels admitted that Allied propaganda was having an effect.
