Entente cordiale! [Cordial agreement!]
Artist unknown
1941
lithograph on wove paper
Estate of Richard N. Tetlie ’43 in honor of Evelyn Ytterboe Tetlie and Joseph Tetlie
Lurid color and an action-packed scene draw the eye to this negative portrayal of Churchill, Stalin, and Roosevelt, the leaders of England, Soviet Union, and the United States. Visual stereotyping—antisemitic for Churchill and Roosevelt, “Asiatic” for Stalin—adds grotesqueness. Sacks of Lend-Lease money reinforce false rumors of a Jewish financial cabal behind the war. Churchill and Stalin strain to pull Roosevelt in a vehicle that churns the earth and creates chaos as cities and factories burn. Vultures circle the carnage. The phrase “Entente Cordiale” (Cordial Agreement) is used here ironically. Originally a diplomatic term for cooperation between Britain and France against Germany in WWI, the phrase here highlights the hypocritical “cooperation” between capitalists and Communists.
A right-wing Belgian party, not the Nazis, sponsored this poster, hoping to curry favor with the occupiers by recruiting French-speaking volunteers in Belgium to support Germany’s invasion of Russia in 1941. Nazi authorities may have introduced this poster in France in 1943–44 to call attention to destruction caused by Allied bombs and fuel fears of a Soviet victory.