This is taken from Julian Jackson's book The Fall of France (the first post about that will come later) as one of the reasons why the French capitulated to the Nazi's so quickly.
The two peasants in the caption for the 1941 cartoon are being told: "How can you be surprised [about the defeat]? you gorged yourselves on the works of Proust, Gide and Cocteau."
Literature gets blamed for everything...
