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The "Land & Water" edition of Raemaekers' cartoons, volume 1 cover

The "Land & Water" edition of Raemaekers' cartoons, volume 1

Chapter 11: Kreuzland, Kreuzland über Alles
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About This Book

A collection of forceful wartime cartoons and accompanying editorial material that confronts militarism and records the brutal consequences of the Great War. The images pair stark, often religiously inflected symbolism with biting satire to portray atrocities, refugees, prisoners, naval and aerial warfare, propaganda, and political hypocrisy; captions and introductory essays present the artist as a moral witness. Arranged as topical plates, the drawings mix direct visual accusation and allegory to stir public sentiment, chronicle civilian suffering, and expose diplomatic and military tensions.

Kreuzland, Kreuzland über Alles

This war has produced examples of every kind of misery which human beings can inflict upon each other, except one. Europe has mercifully been spared long sieges of populous towns, ending in the surrender of the starving population. But many towns and villages have been burnt; and masses of refugees have fled before the invader, knowing too well the brutal treatment which they had to expect if they remained. Very many of the unhappy Belgians have taken refuge in Holland; a considerable number have found an asylum in this country. They are homeless and ruined; if the war were to end to-morrow, many of them would not know where to go or how to live. Families have been broken up; husbands and wives, parents and children, are ignorant of each other’s fate. In this picture we see a crowd of children, herded together like a flock of sheep, with nobody to take care of them. Their via dolorosa is marked by long rows of crosses on either side, emblems of suffering, death, and sacrifice. In the distance rise the smoke and flames from one of the innumerable incendiary fires which the Germans, like the cruel banditti of the Middle Ages, have kindled wherever they go.

THE DEAN OF ST. PAUL’S

KREUZLAND, KREUZLAND ÜBER ALLES

Belgium, 1914: “Where are our fathers?”