Overview
- Brief Narrative
- Poster created by Ben Shahn for the US Office of War Information as a response to the Nazi-led annihilation and destruction of communities throughout the Czech Republic, including Lidice. It also protests the retaliatory measures taken for the attempted assassination by Czech resistance members of Reinhard Heydrich, director of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, under the Nazi occupation.
- Artwork Title
- This is Nazi brutality
- Series Title
- Office of War Information poster, no. 11
- Date
-
commemoration:
1942 June 11
creation: 1942
- Geography
-
manufacture:
United States
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection
- 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. / 6/11/42115P.
- 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 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.
Physical Details
- Language
- English
- Classification
-
Posters
- Category
-
Anti-Nazi propaganda
- Object Type
-
Posters, American (lcsh)
- Physical Description
- Rectangular paper poster with an image of a man in a blue suit with a hood tied over his head. His clenched fists are chained to a red brick wall. Across his body is English text designed to look like the pasted strips from a telegram.
- Dimensions
- overall: Height: 38.270 inches (97.206 cm) | Width: 28.270 inches (71.806 cm)
- Materials
- overall : paper, ink, linen
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- No restrictions on access
- Conditions on Use
- No restrictions on use
Keywords & Subjects
Administrative Notes
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- The poster was acquired by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1994.
- Record last modified:
- 2022-07-28 18:22:24
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn8558
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Also in Poster collection
The collection consists of three posters: a poster created by Ben Shahn for the US Office of War Information, a poster depicting a three-quarter length portrait of Hitler (Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Fuhrer!), and an anti-Semitic propaganda poster.
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Poster of three-quarter length portrait of Hitler
Antisemitic Der Stürmer advertising flier showing several Jewish people smiling
Object
Antisemitic flier for the Der Stürmer newspaper showing photographic images of the “devilish grins” of Jews. The text claims that Jews are born criminals, who are incapable of laughter, and can only smile nefariously, which implies their untrustworthy nature. Two versions of the flier were published: this one with red lettering and an advertisement on the bottom, and one with black-and-white text without a bottom advertisement. The antisemitic newspaper was founded by Julius Streicher and published from 1923 to 1945. Striecher used the paper as a platform to foment public hatred of the Jewish race. The paper blamed Jews for the depression, unemployment, and inflation in Germany as well as rape and other crimes against the German people. Der Stürmer also accused Jews of "blood libel" or "Jewish ritual murder" antisemitic fabrications that were common in the Middle Ages. They claimed that Jews used Christian blood, usually from children, obtained from a torturous ritual sacrifice to perform religious ceremonies. The paper often featured crude and distasteful cartoons that showed Jewish people as ugly, with exaggerated features and misshapen bodies. The paper became very popular, eventually reaching a circulation of 800,000. After the war ended, Streicher was arrested by the US Army in May 1945. He was tried by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, convicted, and executed per the ruling that his repeated publication of articles calling for the annihilation of the Jewish race were a direct indictment to murder and a crime against humanity.