Mail MadnessJennifer StavrosPainful Self-Criticism, Painful Self-Criticism Father and Son, E.o. Plauen, The Story of Ohser, comic cards, history, Germany, German, Third Reich, comics from Germany, comics from WWII, postcards, postcards from Germany, lessons, holidays, dark history, joy in dark hours, Postcrossing, Holocaust comics, Holocaust card, postcard about the Holocaust, comics

Sad Holiday Smiles and Painful Self-Criticism

Mail MadnessJennifer StavrosPainful Self-Criticism, Painful Self-Criticism Father and Son, E.o. Plauen, The Story of Ohser, comic cards, history, Germany, German, Third Reich, comics from Germany, comics from WWII, postcards, postcards from Germany, lessons, holidays, dark history, joy in dark hours, Postcrossing, Holocaust comics, Holocaust card, postcard about the Holocaust, comics
Sad Holiday Smiles and Painful Self-Criticism

Don’t be an asshole kids.


Editor’s note: As you may have picked up from my mail twitter, I’m currently backlogged with mail both outgoing and incoming due to attending to things with things with my son Jonas yet again as well as some grieving for my sister’s would have been 40th birthday but started to upload some cards recently finally having just finished another major filing that I won’t be getting into here.


This card was dated 9.9.2018 and is from Germany. I received it likely about a month or more ago in September but am not sure right now. October through just now (December 13th) have kind of been a complete wash and busy with other family matters and concerns that updating here hasn’t been as frequent or on my list as it should.

A few weeks before Christmas however, and this card is a little extra special in its theme as you’ll see from the picture. The card is pretty accurate for this time of year. I mean how can this not be a great holiday card to make you smile and remind you not to be an asshole to kids right now? Unless you’re an asshole I suppose but that’s another story that I will be posting about over on my section of dating blog series of disasters that you can read about by clicking Once Loved on the Nav at the top.

The card you’re looking at was done by artist Mehr zu Erich Ohser who was a famous cartoonist who was forced into the Third Reich to draw propaganda cartoons. Per my awesome Postcrosser “He made these Father & Son cartoons to make people laugh in the times of the WWII” but the Nazis didn't think too highly of this and sentenced him to death. He committed suicide instead and his comics are still famous in Germany.

The top of this card says, in German:

Schmerzhafte Selbstkritik
aus “ Vater und Sohn, e.o. plauen”

Sudverlag GmbH, Konstanz, 2000

I punched it into Google Translate to find out what this meant in English and found out the name of this particular cartoon:

German TranslationComicDE-7507038.jpg

The bottom of the card (in German of course) says the name of the artist Mehr zu Erich Ohser and a website, http://e.o.plauen.de/ , which I’m betting you can learn more about him.

In March of this year (March 18th, 2018), Google also informed me that they did a doodle to honor him on what would have been his 115th birthday. You can click the link here ( https://www.google.com/doodles/erich-ohsers-115th-birthday ) to find out a bit more about this artist and the card:

All in all this card is a reminder to remember the light during the dark hours. While this artist was persecuted and in an extremely dark hour he chose to give back to the world with the gift of his art. During my own dark and critical time, it’s important to ensure that you’re not an asshole. My kids have tons of toys and things waiting for them. They might not know it and I might not talk about it publicly as often (ahem section I’m not talking about but am kind of talking about) but they’re there.

Comics and novels from this particular time and horrific moment in history are powerful and treasured. I highly encourage you to read more about this artist and his life. Another comic about the Holocaust that is worth checking out as well is “Maus” by Art Spiegelman which is one of the greatest comics of all time documenting the horrors of the events in comic form. On a not comic related level but still some powerful art produced by the Holocaust is “Night” by Elie Wiesel whose words will make you cry if you’re not a complete asshole… which I really hope you’re not.

Card and Stamps