Overview
- Brief Narrative
- Propaganda poster in French showing German global victories against the British Empire. The poster depicts Winston Churchill’s caricatured, disembodied head with 12 tentacles, several bloody and truncated, reaching out over Africa and the Middle East, and extending past the border toward America and Asia. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. In response, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. On June 22, 1940, France signed an armistice agreement by which the Germans would occupy the northern half of France. After the armistice and occupation, German authorities began releasing propaganda to fuel the resentment many French people held towards the British. The bloody tentacles represent Britain’s military failures against Germany. In Norway, a combined French and British force failed to stop the German invasion and in Germany, where British armies were forced out of continental Europe. In Mers El Kebir, Algeria, the British navy attacked a neutral French fleet killing nearly 1,300 sailors and in Dakar, a combined British and Free French force failed to take the colonial outpost. In Libya-Egypt, the British were forced to withdraw and were besieged at Tobruk in Somalia, where the British Protectorate was taken by the Italians and Syria, and German forces briefly took control of the region.
- Artwork Title
- CONFIANCE…
- Alternate Title
- Confidence …
- Date
-
publication:
approximately 1942
- Geography
-
depiction:
Great Britain
depiction: Middle East
depiction: Africa
distribution: France
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection
- Markings
- front, top, printed, white : CONFIANCE... [Confidence]
front, top right, printed, black ink : SPK
front, top right, printed white : NORWEGE / ALLEMAGNE [Norway / Germany]
front, center, printed, white : DAKAR / MERS EL KÉBIR / LYBIE-EGYPTE / SOMALIE SYRIE [Dakar / Mers El Kébir / Lybia-Egypt / Somalia / Syria]
front, bottom, printed, white : SES AMPUTATIONS SE POURSUIVENT MÉTHODIQUEMENT [its amputation continues methodically] - Contributor
-
Artist:
SPK
Physical Details
- Language
- French
- Classification
-
Posters
- Category
-
War propaganda
- Object Type
-
Posters, French (lcsh)
- Physical Description
- French propaganda poster on white, medium weight paper depicting a map of Africa and the Middle East in brown with the caricatured head of Winston Churchill on England, in red, with 12 octopus like tentacles extending from him. The background is blue representing the ocean. His skin is a sickly green, he is balding with white hair, blood red lips, and a cigar in his mouth. Several tentacles have enveloped Ireland, Southern Africa, and part of Syria. Two tentacles reach beyond the borders towards the United States and Europe. The remaining tentacles reach out to labeled regions but are cut and bleeding, representing German victories over Britain in: Norway, Germany, Dakar, Mers El Kèebir, Libia-Egypt, Somalia, and Syria. The artist’s monogram is in the top right corner. For another copy of this poster, see 2001.349.3.
- Dimensions
- overall: Height: 46.500 inches (118.11 cm) | Width: 31.375 inches (79.693 cm)
- Materials
- overall : paper, ink
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- No restrictions on access
- Conditions on Use
- No restrictions on use
Keywords & Subjects
- Topical Term
- Nazi propaganda--posters. Propaganda, Anti-British--Posters. Propaganda, French--History--20th century. World War, 1939-1945--Posters. World War, 1939-1945--Propaganda.--Pictorial works. Propaganda--Germany--History--20th century.
- Geographic Name
- France--History--German occupation, 1940-1945.--Posters.
- Personal Name
- Churchill, Winston, 1874-1965--Caricatures and cartoons.
Administrative Notes
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- The poster was acquired by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1998.
- Funding Note
- The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
- Record last modified:
- 2024-11-07 11:40:19
- This page:
- http://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn12685
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Also in World War II French poster collection
The collection consists of posters depicting anti-Semitic, anti-British, and anti-American propaganda created in German occupied France during World War II.
Date: after 1940 September 23-before 1944 August
Anti-British propaganda poster featuring Winston Churchill looming above a mother and child
Object
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Anti-British propaganda poster reminding people of previous British conquests of French territory
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Propaganda poster reporting United States Navy fleet losses to Japan
Object
Propaganda poster in French with a chart showing the number of warships that the United States had lost between October 27 and December 5, 1943, in the war with Japan. The poster was meant to show that the Pacific War was going badly for the Americans. It references two battles specifically, Bougainville and Gilbert and Marshall Islands, which were two campaigns that resulted in American victories over Japan. The poster claims that 50% of the US war fleet had been destroyed in a period of 39 days. The chart shows that 56 ships had been sunk and a further 41 had been damaged. The poster uses the 1939 ship force levels to inflate the percentage of US losses. In reality, the US navy in 1943 was 9 times larger than in 1939. Additionally, the information provided on the chart is inaccurate when compared with US reported losses, showing the poster to be disingenuous.
Pro-German propaganda poster warning of threats against France
Object
Allegorical pro-German propaganda poster depicting France under attack by hostile, foreign elements allied with the Françaises Libres [Free French] movement. France is symbolized by a couple caring for the land, representing the safety and stability of France. They are threatened by three wolves labelled Freemasonry, Jews, and de Gaulle, supported by Lies, a three-headed snake, who seek to stop the regeneration of France. France was occupied by Nazi Germany from June 1940- fall 1944. The Free French were those who sought to continue the war against Germany even though France had surrendered. Most of these resistance forces were eventually united under General Charles de Gaulle. Paris was liberated on August 25, 1944, and de Gaulle entered in triumph the next day.
Propaganda poster blaming Jews for French peasants’ problems
Object
French announcement poster blaming Jews for the problems of farmers and peasants published by Centre Payson in September 1942. The text claims that Jews unfairly benefit from the peasant’s labor, manipulate the black market for their benefit, and are to blame for the war. After the occupation of France, German authorities began releasing propaganda to provoke antiemetic sentiment among the public. Germany invaded France in May 1940. In June France signed an armistice which gave the Germans control of northern and western France, including Paris. The unoccupied territory was governed from the city of Vichy by a collaborationist regime under Marshal Henri Philippe Petain. Petain’s administration came to be known as the Vichy government. In 1940 the Vichy government passed anti-Semitic legislation that excluded Jews from public life, dismissed them from positions in the civil service and military and barred them from occupations in industry, commerce, law, medicine, and teaching. In July 1941 the Vichy regime instituted a program of “Aryanization” seizing Jewish owned property for the French state. In June 1942 Jews in occupied France were required to wear Star of David badges. German officials and French police conducted roundups of Jews in the occupied and unoccupied regions. Some were taken to detention camps in Gurs, Les Miles, Saint-Cyprien and others while most were deported to killing centers in the east. In November German and allied Italian troops occupied the region under Vichy control. France was liberated on August 25, 1944. During the occupation, 77,000 Jews living in French territory were murdered.
