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Friday 18 July 2008

And another thing

Thinking of becoming a cartoonist in today’s Britain? Think again

The cartoonist Vicky (Victor Weisz, 1913–66) fled to London not long after the Reichstag fire, with the Gestapo at his heels. Had he not possessed a Hungarian passport he would never have got away, for as the boy wonder of Berlin political cartooning in the 12 Uhr Blatt, he had gone for Hitler as far back as 1928, and was a marked man.

The cartoonist Vicky (Victor Weisz, 1913–66) fled to London not long after the Reichstag fire, with the Gestapo at his heels. Had he not possessed a Hungarian passport he would never have got away, for as the boy wonder of Berlin political cartooning in the 12 Uhr Blatt, he had gone for Hitler as far back as 1928, and was a marked man. He spoke no English, and he told me he found it hard to learn. Living in a bedsit in Hampstead, he went one morning into a greasy-spoon place for a cup of coffee. He was unemployed, almost penniless and despondent. Suddenly the radio began to blare the ‘Horst Wessel’ song. He shouted to the waitress, translating literally from the German: ‘I cannot hear it! I cannot hear it!’ The poor girl, doubtless muttering to herself, ‘Some people need to get their ears tested,’ moved over to the radio and turned up the volume as high as it would go. Aghast, Vicky rushed out into the street. ‘It was the lowest point of my life,’ he told me. ‘I thought the ordinary people of England were turning Nazi. Not until the next day did I discover my mistake. Then I determined to learn English properly.’

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