Ben Shahn poster with an image of a hooded man protesting the Nazi destruction of Lidice

Ben Shahn was born in Kovno,(Kaunus) Lithuania, on September 12, 1898. Shahn immigrated to Brooklyn, New York, in 1906. He first worked as a lithographer's apprentice until 1930 and was formally educated at NYU and the National Academy of Design in New York City. He was associated with the Social Realist movement and his work often joined striking visual images with compassionate and powerful political commentary. During World War II (1939-1945) he designed posters the Office of War Information. Shahn, age 71, died on March 14, 1969.

The United States Office of War Information (OWI) was created on June 13, 1942, to centralize and control the content and production of government information and propaganda about the war. It coordinated the release of war news for domestic use, and using posters along with radio broadcasts, worked to promote patriotism, warn about foreign spies, and recruit women into war work. The office also established an overseas branch, which launched a large-scale information and propaganda campaign abroad. The government appealed to the public through popular culture and more than a quarter of a billion dollars' worth of advertising was donated during the first three years of the National Defense Savings Program. Victory in Europe was declared on May 8, 1945, and in Japan on September 2, 1945. The OWI ceased operation in September.