Why did the Nazis make caricatures of the KKK painting them as evil and bad?

by Cocksuckin

I always associate Nazis with racists, and the KKK with Nazis, so i'm wondering why they made political cartoons like this purposely painting them as bad?

Is it merely the association with America and them painting Americans as racist, or was there a deeper reason? And for that matter, why in the world would the Nazis hate other racists?

Did Nazis actually hate the KKK in WWII? I can't seem to find clear answers online about any kind of weird/sensitive topic like this, even subbing DuckDuckGo for google.

Gravetemple

According to K. Williams Backer in "Monsters and the Monstrous: Myths and Metaphors of Enduring Evil", especifically in Page 87, the general idea by the original Norwegian pro-axis artist Harald Damsleth, who drew the picture, was to show different elements of American culture. Particularly, by presenting the juxtaposition of African American culture, such as the jazz record, clashing with racism elements ,like the KKK hood and the noose, the intent is to portray contradiction and the hipocrisy of the country (the U.S.), who promised to "save" Europe and European culture (remember the poster is from 1944), and below the sign asks "with what right?", as in "with what right do Americans come here with the objective of saving anyone or any culture?".

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In short, the idea is to portray America and American culture as a confused mixture, a hypocritical country with jumbled ideals, which would only bring European and white culture further down with their interference.

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Reference:

Monsters and the Monstrous: Myths and Metaphors of Enduring Evil - Edited by Niall Scott

Published by Rodopi Books, 2007.

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King_of_Men

I think it would be helpful to place this poster in a more specific context; "Nazi propaganda" is too broad a concept to usefully analyse it. In particular, this is propaganda of the Norwegian occupation regime, intended for a Norwegian population who, for the most part, opposed the Nazis, or at least opposed the German occupation of their country. Moreover, Norway during the war was, by modern standards, monolithically ethnically homogenous; there were perhaps two thousand Jews, a few tens of thousands of Sami, and some Roma - and for the latter two groups, "Norwegianisation" had been in progress for half a century anyway, quite without help from actual Nazis (and would continue into the sixties). So there was certainly racism, but it was the general "background" racism that you find basically everywhere in the early twentieth century; it wasn't a major ideological point for any Norwegian faction, not even for Nasjonal Samling, Quisling's party. Racism, you might say, wasn't a major selling point - it wouldn't make for effective propaganda, and moreover, it just wasn't that important even to the Norwegian "Nazi" faction. I put "Nazi" in quotes here because Nasjonal Samling - "National Unity" in English - while quite nationalist and authoritarian, weren't very strong adherents of the specific ideological features that distinguish Nazism from Fascism. It's more useful to compare them to Mussolini's regime, or Franco's, or really any of Hitler's ideological allies in other Axis countries: They are very strongly nationalist, they are very authoritarian and invested in a single dictator, they are very concerned with the military power of the state and increasing it by uniting their people behind the Leader. Many of them also believe in increasing military power by directing industry towards guns, bombs, and tanks. But in general, they are not really hyperfocused on "racial purity" or on the Jews, and to the extent that they do focus on those things, it's often an import from Germany, meant to appease Hitler, and not something that grows organically out of the movement itself. (I am generalising here, there will be many exceptions.)

So, while Nasjonal Samling was certainly racist enough, and didn't make any sort of objection when ordered to round up the Norwegian Jews, that wasn't a central part of their ideology or self-image; and also not a very useful "marketing strategy" for convincing the 98% of Norwegians that didn't support the regime, to do so. Instead they tried to market themselves (and saw themselves) as the law-and-order and strength-through-discipline party. The KKK are not being held up, in this poster, as examples of racists, per se, but as vigilantes. They are bad because they went about lynching people lawlessly, without benefit of judge or jury - their victims' race is not the point. Note, likewise, the "gangster arm" in a striped prison uniform, holding a Thompson gun - in the same way, this is an image of lawlessness, of a breakdown of order, in particular of the state's monopoly on violence. And, again, the noose, presumably for lynching someone, hanging from the upper-right arm of the creature; it's not hanging, as such, that's bad, it's doing so without due process, in a lynch mob.

I'll add some comments on other features of the poster: Aside from lawlessness, the other characteristic of the Culture Creature is degeneracy, with a side order of commercialism. Notice the big-nosed, pinstripe-suited man clinging to the money-bag that the creature holds ready to drop like a bomb - the required minimum dose of anti-Semitism, as it were. The record being held up like a frisbee no doubt contains jazz music, that horrible noise that only dissolute youths dance to; the "World's Most Beautiful Leg" hints at sexual immorality. The little guy looking at the creature and holding the sign is a common theme in Damsleth's work, a caricature of the people his propaganda didn't convince; the big ears indicate that he (illegally) listens to radio propaganda from London, with the implication that he believes everything he hears. His sign reads "USA vil redde Europas kultur fra undergang", "The US wants to save Europe's culture from destruction"; the commentary in black letters (not very readable) is "Med hvilken rett?", literally "With what right?" but perhaps more idiomatically translated into modern English as "Lol, yeah, right".

Bigbysjackingfist

there's a pretty good thread on this here with responses from /u/Georgy_K_Zhukov and /u/kieslowskifan.

King_of_Men

Perhaps you might also find interesting this earlier thread on the same poster, with an answer by /u/kieslowskifan.