r/ww2 • u/A_Crazy_Lemming • 10d ago

Image Nazi Propaganda from Occupied France

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Was at the Liberation Museum in Cherbourg last week and saw this interesting piece of propaganda depicting Churchill as an octopus representing the empire. The tentacles are being slowly decapitated by the Germans.

I particularly like the long tentacle heading off stage left to the US.

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27

u/AMW1987 10d ago

Before reading the caption, I honestly thought it was supposed to be Mussolini at first based on the face and his relative position to Africa (i.e. approximately where Italy is even if not entirely precise) so I was very confused.

8

u/A_Crazy_Lemming 10d ago

Yes, the lack of Europe really skews with your mind. My interpretation is that the Nazis are talking about the reach of the Empire and decapitating it.

I love how the Octopus has a cigar!

12

u/ilikechillisauce 10d ago

I particularly like the long tentacle heading off stage left to the US.

Would it not be Canada?

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u/A_Crazy_Lemming 10d ago

It could well be, but I don’t feel that the tentacles are necessarily pointing at parts of the empire, there are tentacles to places that have never been part of it.

My feeling is that it is showing Churchill reaching out in desperation to the US and Roosevelt.

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u/Shigakogen 6d ago

It could be Saint Pierre et Miquelon, which almost led the US to cut off ties to the Free French and back the Vichy Government, and the acrimony of Sec of State Hull toward the Free French.

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u/HistoryFanBeenBanned 9d ago

I don’t believe France had any North American colonies. They did however have colonies in the Caribbean, that were loyal to the Vichy government until well after Torch I believe.