František Bidlo

Marc Bloch

František Bidlo was born in Prague on 3rd September, 1895. He came from a poor family and was unable to complete his secondary education.

Bidlo became a hatter but during the First World War he fought in the Austro-Hungarian Army on the Italian Front.

After the war he became a socialist and became a cartoonist for left-wing newspapers. He also contributed work to Simplicissimus and became a book illustrator.

Bidlo was a strong opponent of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. In 1931 he upset Joseph Goebbels when he made a series of drawings that poked fun of his attempts to be a novelist.

Several of his cartoons dealt with events in Nazi Germany. This included drawings about the treatment of Jews. Bidlo also did work for the German Communist Party (KPD) but after Hitler came to power in 1933 he moved back to Prague.

David Low, The Salute with both hands now (3rd July, 1934)
František Bidlo, self-portrait (c. 1930)
David Low, The Salute with both hands now (3rd July, 1934)
František Bidlo, Swastikas (c. 1933)
David Low, The Salute with both hands now (3rd July, 1934)
František Bidlo, Jews are Our Guests and They Will be Treated Accordingly (c. 1933)
David Low, The Salute with both hands now (3rd July, 1934)
František Bidlo, The Tidiest Country in the World (July, 1934)

When Adolf Hitler ordered the invasion of Czechoslovakia after the Munich Agreement of 1938 František Bidlo was forced to go into hiding. He was arrested and imprisoned in Terezin Fortress.

František Bidlo died of typhoid fever 9th May 1945.

Primary Sources

(1) Zbyněk Zeman, Heckling Hitler (1987)

Hitler used his private army and its pre-war 1933 terrorist tactics to underpin his power and intimidate his opponents. Some of their criminal activities were punished by legal action, but by no means all of them. The Czech cartoonist Bidlo showed the criminal nature of Hitler's regime and of the SA thugs in several cartoons.

Student Activities

Adolf Hitler's Early Life (Answer Commentary)

Night of the Long Knives (Answer Commentary)

The Hitler Youth (Answer Commentary)

German League of Girls (Answer Commentary)

The Political Development of Sophie Scholl (Answer Commentary)

The White Rose Anti-Nazi Group (Answer Commentary)

Kristallnacht (Answer Commentary)

Heinrich Himmler and the SS (Answer Commentary)

Trade Unions in Nazi Germany (Answer Commentary)

Adolf Hitler v John Heartfield (Answer Commentary)

Hitler's Volkswagen (The People's Car) (Answer Commentary)

Women in Nazi Germany (Answer Commentary)

The Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich (Answer Commentary)

The Last Days of Adolf Hitler (Answer Commentary)