1944.07.22 “On Adolph’s Home Front”
by Frederick (Fred) Otto Seibel (1886 – 1969)
12 x 22 in., ink on paper
Coppola Collection
Frederick Seibel began his career as a cartoonist in 1916 for the Knickerbocker Press in Albany, New York. He moved to Virginia in 1926 to become an editorial cartoonist for the Richmond Times-Dispatch and worked there for over 30 years. Over the course of his career, he did several shows at Metropolitan Museum Of New York, Art Institute of Chicago and Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Seibel died in 1968 after completing nearly 16,000 cartoons. His most famous cartoon was "Retreat from Moscow," (5 November 1936) depicting presidential candidate Alfred E. Smith as Napoleon after FDR's landslide victory in 1936.
As early as 1938, German military officers had plotted to overthrow Hitler, but indecisive leadership and the pace of global events stymied action. Plotters gained a sense of urgency in 1943, after Germany lost the Battle of Stalingrad and Soviet forces began to push towards Germany.
The “20 July” plot was another failed attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler, the chancellor and leader of Nazi Germany, and overthrow the Nazi regime on July 20, 1944. The plot, named Operation Valkyrie, was famously dramatized in the 2008 Tom Cruise film, Valkyrie. The plotters were part of the German resistance, mainly composed of Wehrmacht officers. The leader of the conspiracy, Claus von Stauffenberg, tried to kill Hitler by detonating an explosive hidden in a briefcase. However, due to the location of the bomb at the time of detonation, the blast only dealt Hitler minor injuries. The planners' subsequent coup attempt also failed and resulted in a purge of the Wehrmacht.
The event was publicized worldwide. News in the West emphasized the growing sense of rebellion and revolt inside the Nazi regime, and particularly against Hitler.
Hitler was never the same after the bomb blast of July 20th. At first, everyone around him optimistically thought he had only suffered minor injuries. But by the next day, various symptoms indicated some deeper problems. The bomb had exploded about six feet to his right. As a result, Hitler began to experience a persistent earache, which steadily worsened, in his right ear and temporarily lost all hearing in that ear. It turned out he had a ruptured eardrum. Additionally, his eyes developed an odd flicker and constantly drifted to the right. His ear and eye troubles affected his balance, and he staggered like a man who had been drinking, needing to carefully focus on each step as he walked.
Four doctors hovered around the Fuhrer, and they provided a wild concoction of injections, pills and inhalers for all of his symptoms. The drugs in turn caused their own symptoms, such as severe stomach cramps, for which additional drugs were administered, resulting in an ever-increasing toxic stew of medications. On top of this, the insomnia which had plagued Hitler in recent years became severe and he sometimes went days with little or no sleep.
All of this had a dulling effect on his mind and his once extraordinary memory and amazing recall of detail were no longer evident. Personality changes were also evident after July 20th. The now-embittered Fuhrer became impossible to reason with, as General
Guderian himself recalled: "He believed no one anymore. It had been difficult enough dealing with him. It now became a torture that grew steadily worse from month to month. He frequently lost all self-control, and his language grew increasingly violent."
Each passing month brought Nazi Germany nearer to the end.
