Philippe Vuillemin / Jean-Marie Gourio - Hitler=SS (1989)

"In the early 1980s comics writer JM Gourio and artist Philippe Vuillemin serialized a series of holocaust-themed cartoons and stories in the satirical adult-only magazine HARA-KIRI, collected under the title "HITLER = SS" (a joke on the 1968 "CRS = SS" rallying cry).

The stories were then collected into a book that immediately became the subject of numerous lawsuits from Jewish organizations and Holocaust survivors. It was banned in some countries, not in others."

Lupin, dailykos.com

"B'nai B'rith de España, and Amical de Mathausen - an association of former Spanish inmates of Nazi concentration camps - each filed a criminal complaint against the people responsible for the editing and publication of the comic, on the grounds of grave insult and mockery of a religious belief. The Examining Judge in Barcelona decided to proceed with the criminal actions and to confiscate the publication and the printing equipment. In his defence, [the manager of the Spanish publishing house Makoki] Carullᇠmaintained that his only intention was to parody and ridicule the so called 'neo-revisionist' organizations which deny the Holocaust or genocide of the Jewish people, an 'intention' which does not appear in the tales of the comic. In spite of this, on 29 January 1992, the Criminal Court acquitted Carullᇠon the grounds of lack of criminal intention.

An appeal was brought against Carull‡á's acquittal to the Provincial Court of Barcelona. This Court partially upheld the appeal and sentenced Carullá‡, as only author of the insult, to one month and one day of 'major imprisonment' (arresto mayor), a fine of 100,000 pesetas and half of the legal fees. However, the Court acquitted him of the offense of mocking a religious faith. According to the judgment, the contents of the comic entail 'contempt for an historical event in which [the Jewish] people is one of the protagonists'. The Court held that the publication clearly contains the potential to hurt the sensitivity of the Jewish people, which was directly affected by the Nazi genocide."

Alberto Benasuly, Justice [Journal of the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists]

link [French]

Find a free comics reader here (windows) or here (mac). If you want to burn the book, unzip the file in order to obtain a ton of jpeg images that you can print.

Thanks to the original uploader.

Bravo Clippings #27

Philippe Vuillemin / Jean-Marie Gourio, "N'oublions jamais qu'ils ont sauvé 'Bébé' [Don't Forget They Saved 'Bébé']" (Hitler=SS, 1989)