Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art

About this Work

In 1944, Steinberg found himself working with the OSS (Office of Strategic Services) in its Morale Operation division, creating drawings for anti-Nazi propaganda that were then mass-produced and distributed in Germany. During his military service in China, North Africa, and Italy, he made many drawings of military life at each place he was assigned and sent them back to The New Yorker, which published ten such portfolios. This drawing was in the “North Africa” portfolio of April 29, 1944; it depicts a street in Algiers, where Steinberg was stationed. The published version in The New Yorker, however, cuts off the six heads at the bottom of the page and the road and buildings leading up a hill at top.