Bidspirit auction | Sikot (Pins) – Weekly Journal

Sikot (Pins) – Weekly Journal of Humor and Satire – Bound Volume of 1940 Issues – Numerous Caricatures Against Hitler and Nazi Germany - Sikot (Pins) – Weekly Journal of Humor and Satire – bound volume comprising Issues 1–39 of the first year of the Eretz-Israel satirical weekly, edited and published by Yosef Bass. Tel Aviv, 39 issues, February–December 1940. The various issues feature numerous caricatures against Hitler and Nazi Germany at the height of World War II, particularly on the front covers. A bound volume of issues of Pins, an Eretz-Israel weekly of humor and satire that began appearing in Tel Aviv in February 1940 (the very first issue ever published opens the present volume), approximately six months after the outbreak of World War II. Through caricatures, satirical columns, feuilletons, and commentary on current events, the weekly followed the course of the war in Europe as well as life in the Jewish Yishuv in Eretz Israel. The various issues devote extensive attention to Nazi Germany and its leaders, foremost among them Adolf Hitler, who appears repeatedly on the covers in mocking caricatures as an enemy facing defeat. The present volume includes numerous color cover caricatures by Yosef Bass addressing developments in the war. On the cover of Issue No. 14, dated June 10, 1940, Hitler is depicted in a “Prize – Freedom and Liberation” notice, with skeletons awaiting his death; Issue No. 13, dated May 30, depicts Fascist Italy “pouring oil on the fire”; and on Issue No. 12, dated May 23, Hitler is shown being crushed in a press while the names of the countries he had seized fall from his hands, beneath the caption “Speedily in Our Days...” The caricatures reflect the way the war was perceived in Eretz Israel as events unfolded, in the months before the fall of France and at a time when Europe’s fate was still unknown. The anti-Nazi satire continues throughout the interior pages of the issues. Hitler is depicted alongside historical figures such as Napoleon, juxtaposed with works of European art, and in caricatures addressing the German conquests, Germany’s allies, and the leaders of Europe. One double-page spread features a series of caricatures of Hitler under the heading “Hitler Ponders..., ” while another presents a series of figures under the heading “And in Germany They Say..., ” including Hitler, Ribbentrop, Göring, and Goebbels. Another issue includes a caricature entitled “‘Roosevelt’s Angel of Peace’ Has Arrived in Europe, ” showing an American envoy surrounded by rows of artillery shells. Alongside its extensive coverage of Nazi Germany, Pins also dealt extensively with life in the Jewish Yishuv: Tel Aviv, local politics, the cost of living, culture and entertainment, theater, Jewish-Arab relations, recruitment, and current events. Issue No. 4, dated March 28, 1940, marks the tenth anniversary of the death of Lord Balfour; Issue No. 7, dated April 18, is devoted in part to the Passover Seder of 5700; and other issues feature commercial advertisements reflecting everyday life in Eretz Israel during the war. Yosef Bass (1908–1995), the founder of the weekly and its central figure, was a caricaturist, illustrator, designer, and architect, and later served for some thirty years as the caricaturist of the Haaretz newspaper. Before immigrating to Eretz Israel in 1936, he published illustrations in the Polish humor weekly Szpilki (“Pins”), from which he took the name of the Eretz-Israel weekly. Pins began appearing on February 29, 1940, and continued uninterrupted throughout the years of World War II, until December 1945. The present issues constitute an exceptional visual record of the way the Jewish Yishuv in Eretz Israel responded to the news arriving from Europe during the first crucial months of the war. The satire, written and drawn while the events themselves were still unfolding, combines mockery of Hitler and the Nazi leadership with anxiety over German expansion and an openly expressed hope for its defeat. 39 issues bound in one volume, all complete. Separate title page for each issue. 32 cm. Numerous illustrations and caricatures; some of the issue covers printed in two and three colors. Tear to the front cover of one issue. Overall condition: good.