Physical Description
Offset color lithograph poster adhered to stiff paper backing with a painting of a man in a blue-black suit and white shirt with a brown sacklike hood over his head. His arms hang straight at his side and his large clenched fists are in blue metal wrist cuffs with chains. He is depicted from the knee up and stands facing forward at the intersection of 2 high red brick walls. The strip of sky at the top is dark blue with black shading. Across his torso is the title in bold red font above 6 yellow bars with English text designed to look like the pasted strips from a telegram. The artist's name, Ben Shahn, is printed in black ink in the right corner of the image.
Dimensions
overall : 38.000 x 28.250 in. (96.52 x 71.755 cm.)
Materials
overall : paper, ink, adhesive
Markings
front, across center of image : This is Nazi Brutality / RADIO BERLIN. -- / IT IS OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCED: - / ALL MEN OF LIDICE - CZECHOSLOVAKIA - HAVE BEEN SHOT: / THE WOMEN DEPORTED TO A CONCENTRATION CAMP: / THE CHILDREN SENT TO APPROPRIATE CENTERS-- THE / NAME OF THE VILLAGE WAS IMMEDIATELY ABOLISHED. / 6/11/42/115P
front, bottom margin, black ink : Poster No. 11, ISSUED BY THE UNITED STATES OFFICE OF WAR INFORMATION. ADDITIONAL COPIES MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE DIVISION OF PUBLIC INQUIRIES, OFFICE OF WAR INFORMATION, WASHINGTON, D. C.
front, bottom margin, black ink : U.S. Government Printing Office : 1942 ---O -- 491104
Contributor
Artist:
Ben Shahn
Producer:
United States Office of War Information
Biography
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 June 13, 1942, to centralize and control the the content and production of government information about the war. It coordinated the release of war news for domestic use, and, using posters and 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 War Finance Committee was placed in charge of supervising the sale of all bonds, and the War Advertising Council promoted voluntary compliance with bond buying. More than a quarter of a billion dollars worth of advertising was donated during the first three years of the National Defense Savings Program. The government appealed to the public through popular culture. Victory in Europe was declared on May 8, 1945, and on September 2, 1945 in Japan. The OWI ceased operation the September.
