Joseph
Flatter
was
born in Austria
in 1894.
A student at the Vienna Academy of Art he worked as a painter and
cartoonist. A strong opponent of Adolf Hitler
and his Nazi Government, Flatter
and his wife, the concert pianist Hilda Lorwa, moved to London
in 1934.
On the
outbreak of the Second World War Flatter was
briefly interned as an "enemy alien". After his release
he produced anti-Nazi propaganda for the British government. Flatter
became an official British War Artist and in this role attended the
Nuremberg
War Trials with
David Low.
After the
war Flatter wrote: "I drew many hundreds of cartoons during the
war and, to my surprise, ideas never failed me. The moving force was
hatred, it took concrete shape before my eyes. And my hatred of those
responsible for the wanton cruelty done to so many innocent victims
was boundless. I went about in the shape of my adversaries. I crept
into their skin. I drew, hanged and quartered them." Joseph
Flatter died
in 1988.
Joseph Flatter, His Master's
Voice (1944)
Available from Amazon Books
(order below)
