Oh, don't blow your top.

It's come to my attention that the Iranian Holocaust Cartoon Contest is not as widely-known as I assumed.

After the furor over the Muhammad cartoons earlier this year, many angry Muslims stressed that the West was hypocritical regarding freedom of speech, citing that Western media is quick to publish offensive renderings of the Prophet but would never print anything against the Holocaust.

In response to this, Iran ran a cartoon contest this past spring, asking people to send in cartoons about the Holocaust, offering rewards and opening a museum display specifically to showcase the best. Their rationale was that the Holocaust is an "unmentionable" subject in the West, and that this cartoon contest would not get much press.

In the end, it proved true that the Holocaust cartoon contest went mostly ignored by Western media (especially compared to coverage the Muhammad drawings) for any number of possible reasons: no following riots, global exhaustion with controversial cartoons, general Western squeamishness about Holocaust banter.

But instead of exploring these reasons today, I thought it might be interesting to show some of the better-drawn and more representative Holocaust cartoons the light of day — maybe because I'm Jewish, maybe because I'm a cartoonist, or maybe because sometimes it's constructive to grab controversy by the balls.

That being said, below are 11 of the more thought-provoking Holocaust cartoons I've seen. But this is just the tip of the iceberg; check out hundreds of Holocaust cartoons here.



A standard way of showing that Jewish actions today are the same as the Holocaust, only worse.



I'd say at least a billion people in the world believe the Holocaust is merely an excuse for UN inaction against Israel.



Jews are dung beetles and the Holocaust is a load of shit--doesn't get more straightforward than that.



The key to this is that the Holocaust hangs one Jew and the Jew hangs two Arabs, again suggesting that Israel took the Holocaust and stepped it up a notch.



This one's pretty intricate: the Holocaust elevates the Jew to a protected, lordly place, while they forbid any "needles" (probably representing "the truth") from coming near the fragile Holocaust balloon. Oh, and Arabs' heads keep the Jew balanced.



For me, the notable thing about this one is the artistic style--not the most flattering representation.



The Jew steals the wings and halo to fake goodness and victimhood. Again, what a scathing drawing! You don't see this artistic style much in West.



This one is pretty deep: the Holocaust is a prison that keeps the Palestinians down.



Uncle Sam is both Hitler (the moustache) and a Jew (the curly lock of hair). You'll see a lot of cartoons about how America is either Jewish or a tool of the Jews.



This one impresses me: no mention of the Jew at all, just shows that the Nazi legacy is making the Palestinian path brutal (I assume via the Holocaust).



Among these comics, you'll see a recurring image of this "world" character, obviously representing the entire world outside of Jews and Arabs. The "world" is often shown to be simple, misguided or distracted from today's harsh reality.