Under their system, the individual is a cog
in a military machine, a cipher in an economic
despotism; the individual is a slave. These
facts are documented in the degradation and
suffering of the conquered countries, whose
fate is shared equally by the willing satellites
and the misguided appeasers of the Axis. --Government
Information Manual for the Motion Picture Industry
Office of War Information
Many
of the fear-inspiring posters depicted Nazi
acts of atrocity. Although brutality is always
part of war, the atrocities of World War II
were so terrible, and of such magnitude, as
to engender a new category of crime--crimes
against humanity. The images here were composed
to foster fear. Implicit in these posters is
the idea that what happened there could happen
here.
This is
Nazi Brutality by Ben Shahn, 1942
Lidice was a
Czech mining village that was obliterated by the
Nazis in retaliation for the 1942 shooting of
a Nazi official by two Czechs. All men of the
village were killed in a 10-hour massacre; the
women and children were sent to concentration
camps. The destruction of Lidice became a symbol
for the brutality of Nazi occupation during World
War II.
Printed by the
Government
Printing Office for the Office of
War Information
NARA Still Picture Branch
(NWDNS-44-PA-245)
(Click on poster
for
high-resolution image)
We French
Workers Warn You... by Ben Shahn, 1942
Printed by the
Government
Printing Office
for the War Information Board
NARA Still Picture Branch
(NWDNS-44-PA-246)
(Click on poster for
high-resolution image)
The Sowers by Thomas Hart Benton,
1942
Artist Thomas
Hart Benton believed that it was the artist`s
role either to fight or to "bring the bloody
actual realities of this war home to the American
people." In a series of eight paintings,
Benton portrayed the violence and barbarity of
fascism. "The Sowers" shows the enemy
as bulky, brutish monsters tossing human skulls
onto the ground.
