Table of Contents:
- Introduction
- Modern Art and Propaganda ,
- Women in Propaganda Posters,
- German War Posters of WWI ,
- British Empire Posters of WWI ,
- Austria-Hungary Empire posters of WWI,
- Italian posters of WWI,
- Belgium posters of WWI,
- French Posters of WWI ,
- US Posters of WWI,
- Russian Posters of WWI,
- Nazi Germany and Soviet propaganda ,
- The WWII Propaganda,
- US propaganda in WWII ,
- German propaganda in WWII ,
- Italian Propaganda in WWII ,
- Nordic Propaganda Posters,
- Anti Semitic Propaganda ,
- Soviet Russia Propaganda in WWII ,
- Général de Gaulle and the French Fourth Republic ,
- EU Propaganda ,
- Nato and Warsaw Pact ,
- Chinese Propaganda; Cultural Revolution and Economical Counterrevolution ,
- Cold War Propaganda ,
- North Korean Propaganda Posters - 21st Century!.
- Switzerland Propaganda Posters, 21st Century! .
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Propaganda is as old as human society. Sometime in 300 BC Aetolia gained control of the revered sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi. When in 279/8 BC the Gauls attacked the sanctuary Aetolia participated in its defence and defeated the Gallic attack. Later, in a propaganda move, Aetolians instituted the competition of the Soteria in
“a festival for Zeus Soter and Pythian Apollo as a memorial of the battle that occurred against the barbarians who attacked the Greeks and the sanctuary of Apollo common to the Greeks, against whom the People sent out the elite troops and cavalry to share in the struggle for the collective preservation…”
Despite the fact that there is clear evidence that the Phocians also played a significant role in the repulse of the Gauls’ invasion, the Aetolians claimed sole responsibility for this victory. Some 30 years later they restructured the festival on a majestic scale, lionising themselves as the heroic defenders of Hellenism against a barbarian peril. This propaganda ostensibly was persuasive to the extent that the second-century AD traveler Pausanias (Description of Greece, 10. 19 .5) states that the Gauls’ incursion of 279 BC was the severest menace in all of Greek history. Similarly, in mid-second century, Polybius compared the attack with the great Persian invasion of fifth century BC, (Histories, 2, 35. 7).
All ancient empires tried to validate their triumphs - to themselves, to their own people, and to those they dominated. The Persian propaganda, in Persepolis reliefs, showing the ethnic hierarchy of the empire that ranges from Persians at the top and centers to Greeks at the bottom and periphery, tried to project an egalitarian approach, whereby all nations in the empire were represented equally in their role of supporting and elevating the royal throne, bearing gifts and offering tribute. In Isa 60, the changelessness, the grandeur, and the fortitude of Persian imperial propaganda was being drafted, reinterpreted and incorporated in Jerusalem. The
Pax Persicabecame
Pax Jerusalem.
Establishing an imperial world-view, the Romans propaganda grew during the existence of the empire, most notably with the adoption of Christianity in the early fourth century AD. Propagating the idea that Rome represented peace, good government, and the rule of law. Fast forward to the days of the Spanish Armada (1588), when Sir Walter Raleigh complained that it was “no marvel that the Spaniard should seek by false and slanderous pamphlets, advisoes, and letters, to cover their own loss and to derogate from others their own honours, especially in this fight being performed far off.” And then he recalled that back at the time of the Spanish Armada, when the Spaniards “purposed the invasion” of England, they published “in sundry languages, in print, great victories in words, which they pleaded to have obtained against this realm; and spread the same in a most false sort over all parts of France, Italy, and elsewhere.”
In 1936, when totalitarian regimes in Germany and the Soviet Union resorted to propaganda to engineer the opinions of their citizens, strengthen their own dogmas and partialities, and rationalise atrocious wrongdoings, Aldus Huxley wrote: “Propaganda gives force and direction to the successive movements of popular feeling and desire; but it does not do much to create those movements. The propagandist is a man who canalises an already existing stream. In a land where there is no water, he digs in vain.” A year earlier, W. E. B. Du Bois published an influential book titled Black Reconstruction in America in which he argued American history have been falsified because the nation was ashamed. An American youth attending college, would in all probability complete his education without any idea of the part which the black race has played in America; of the tremendous moral problem of abolition; of the cause and meaning of the Civil War and the relation which Reconstruction had to democratic government. According to him “it is propaganda like this that has led men in the past to insist that history is “lies agreed upon”; and to point out the danger in such misinformation.”
Propaganda is defined as; the systematic propagation of official government policies through manipulative communications to the public. The propaganda may provide true or false information, but the information is selectively presented in a provoking style to have its maximum emotional effect. The term “propaganda” apparently first came into common use in Europe as a result of the missionary activities of the Catholic church. In 1622 Pope Gregory XV created in Rome the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. This was a commission of cardinals charged with spreading the faith and regulating church affairs in heathen lands.
In modern times it is argued that propaganda and public diplomacy are interrelated, with the former having a negative connotation. According to Joseph Nye Jr.’s definition Public Diplomacy is “building relationships with civil-society actors in other countries and about facilitating networks between nongovernmental parties at home and abroad”. On the other hand, Leonard Doob defines propaganda as the “control of individuals through the use of suggestion…regardless of whether or not the propaganda intends to exercise the control”
, which suggests an element of mind engineering that is absent in public diplomacy.Propaganda posters appeared in earnest during World War One (1914-18) when each of the belligerent governments used them not only as a means of legitimizing their engagement to their people, but also as a means of enlisting men, and selling war bonds in order to finance the military campaign. With the outbreak of the First World War, advertising was used to attract volunteers. In 1914, the image of Lord Kitchener, the Minister of War in the UK, was depicted on a poster with a steely gaze and a pointing finger urging young men to ‘join your country’s army’. The identical approach, it seems, was adopted in every other country. In Germany a Reich soldier, pointing his patriotic digit, admonishing
‘Auch du sollst beitreten zur Reichswehr (You, too, should join the Reichswehr. ).’ It was the same on Italian posters.
The ‘four minute men’ of the US propaganda machine at the
Committee on Public Information would deliver inciting speeches to potential volunteers under a poster depicting a stern Uncle Sam pointing his finger at the impressionable young man, pleading: ‘I want YOU for US army’ in 1917. According to Stephen Fox, the author of
The Mirror Makers, the committee spend 1.5 million dollars on advertising for war. Many graphic designers who had fueled the propaganda war machine, including James Montgomery Flagg, who created the Uncle Sam ‘I want YOU’ poster, were stricken with remorse after the war. According to Flagg:
‘A number of us who were too old or too scared to fight prostituted our talents by making posters inciting a large mob of young men who had neverdone anything to us to hop over and get shot at. . . We sold the war to youth.’
Nevertheless, perhaps out of a sense of patriotism, many of the graphic designers in the bellicose countries were convinced of the truth of the messages they had delivered.
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| “Weapons for death - weapons for life! Subscribe to the Victory Loan. ” 1918. |
Modern Art and Propaganda  |
Max Pechstein (Germany, Zwickau, 1881 - 1955), Erwürgt nicht die junge Freiheit, Don’t Strangle Our Newborn Freedom, 1919
As the first world war drew to its bitter end, hunger and despair were rife throughout Germany. Military defeat and economic collapse were making themselves felt. Deserting soldiers roamed the streets and added to the chaos- The country was ripe for change. On November 9, 1918, Kaiser Wilhelm II fled to Holland, and a few days later announced his abdication. The stage was set for a revolution that would replace the old regime with a system in which the leaders were to be responsible to parliament.A coalition government of the moderate Social Democratic party and the more radical Independent Social Democrats was set up. Elections were called for January 1919. In the intervening period many artists became politically active, some for the first time, trying to stimulate action, strengthen opinions, or alter the social conscience.
Posters were the visual weapons in the struggle of the working class against the rich. In marked contrast to the censorship that had been so strictly enforced during the Kaiser’s reign, German cities now became a not of colors and slogans as strident messages covered every available wall space. Among the most traumatic events of the period were the brutal murders in Berlin of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, leaders of the abortive Spartakus (communist) Revolution. This Pechstein’s poster is a stark plea for an end to civil war. See: Stephanie Barron, “Introduction” to Barron (ed.), German Expressionism: The Second Generation (Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1988): : |
Modernist art movements were influencing propaganda posters from the early 20st century. A good example of the avant garde movement influence is a famous piece Beat the Whites with the red wedge - by El Lissitzky, in 1920 which used various geometric color surfaces in an abstract fashion. Lissitzky used this subtle platform to suggest in a blunt propaganda massage.
This early Russian revolutionary poster, "Believe, will celebrate the hundredth anniversary," is one of the many posters that used modernism as was practiced by Fernand Léger , Marc Chagall and others.
The Bauhaus School of Design
Beat the Whites with the red wedge - 1920
Figurative Cubism was introduced by Strakhov-Braslavskij A. I. in his poster "
Liberated woman – build up socialism!", in 1926 and by V. Kulagina's poster called
"To Defend USSR" , in 1930. The quality of the artistic works in these early posters reveals that these creative artists were trying to use propaganda platform as a conduit for the realization of their aesthetic inspiration. Perhaps in those early years of Soviet Union these artists still had a degree of conviction in the legitimacy of their cause, something that was lacking in the propaganda posters of the later years,
Strakhov-Braslavskij A. I, Liberated woman – build up socialism! , 1926
V. Kulagina, ;
To Defend USSR, in 1930.
This ambitious poster celebrates Fascism in strictly modernist flavor. The Mostra della Rivoluzione Fascista was held in Rome in 1933, to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the coup that made Mussolini absolute ruler of Italy. In the words of the catalog, the exhibition aimed to to express
... the atmosphere of the times, all fire and fever, tumultuous, lyrical, glittering. It could only take place in a style matching the artistic adventures of our time, in a strictly contemporary mode. The artists had from Il Duce a clear and precise order; to make something MODERN, full of daring. And they have faithfully obeyed his commands.
Magda Koll, Four Rest at Homes Behind the Front for Soldiers from Bremen, 1915. The poster message that; humanity is alive and well, was a German response to the Allied allegation of German barbarism in the first world war. The minimalist design of the poster was quite innovative at the time.
Ludwig Hohlwein,. Red Cross Collection 1914. Collection in support of volunteer nursing in the war. 1914,
Women in Propaganda Posters Images of women have been prominent in the war poster propaganda as well as in other ideologically driven posters. The images of motherhood have been exploited to symbolize national security, sanctity of homes, duty to country and duty to family. Many of the propaganda posters portrait femininity as passive and in need of protection. Some posters emphasize the patriotic mother who is willing to sacrifice her sons to the war effort. The propaganda has been used to provoke a nationalistic attitude towards the motherland, a place that is pure, noble and different. In the classic war propaganda campaigns of the 20th Century, women as victims of rape often symbolize the brutality of the enemy as well as the despoiling of the motherland's culture and harmony. Ironically, however, women are sometimes portrayed as potential traitors or unwitting accomplices by virtue of their supposed tendency to gossip. Through this cultural stereotyping, an atmosphere of suspicion is created and domestic surveillance becomes embedded into the national consciousness as one of the justified costs of war.
Soviet propaganda posters of the 1920s and the 1930s often portrayed women as larger-than-life figures, reflecting their new economic role and socio-political power and importance. Women equality was enshrined in the Soviet constitution. To realize this ideal, there was a need to set up various institutions that would allow women to become engaged fully in the productive sectors of the economy. Thus, the government invested heavily on various child care facilities, and large-scale canteens to allow them to enter into the workforce. In the propaganda posters, the liberated Soviet women were depicted in various productive roles, although in reality, the gender inequality persisted, and during the whole Soviet era no woman of consequence did emerge at the helms of power.
“Women workers take up your rifles” - A revolutionary poster of 1917.
In contrast, the ideal role for a woman in Nazi Germany was to work at home and be a mother. The Winterhilfswerk, or Winter-Help-Work of the German People, was founded by the Nazis after Hitler was appointed Chancellor. It was their official winter relief charity that was operating under Reich propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels . Hitler introduced the fund in a speech in September 13th, 1933, in which he claimed, "This great campaign against hunger and cold is governed by this principle: We have broken the international solidarity of the proletariat. We want to build the living national solidarity of the German people!" The Winter Fund's main aim was to propagate and popularize the Nazi idea of a national community. The focus of the propaganda was to create an image of the party as a caring institution that was concerned about the welfare of the German people.
Support the Relief Organization Mother and Child, Goebbels in his inauguration address of the Mutter und Kind (Mother and Child) organization, in February 24, 1934 stated; "Mother and Child are the pledge for the immortality of the nation". This was to address one of Hitler's major concern over the falling German birth rate. The Organization sought to increase the birth rate by assisting mothers. The effort was primarily geared to help the mother in the home.
A People that Help Themselves, the Winter Fund poster, 1933, projects the image of a "genetically healthy" family, as the racial nucleus of the nation. The "natural" duty of women, according to the National Socialists' doctrine was to bring as many racially pure and healthy children into the world as possible, in order to expand the "Aryan race". This was an effort to increase the birth rate significantly. Artists were encouraged in this context, "to show at least four German children when they were depicting a family " .
NSDAP (The National Socialist Party ) will save the people’s community; Fellow-Countrymen, if you need advice and help, apply at the local branches. 1938.
Jin Meisheng, The seeds have been well selected, the harvest is more bountiful every year, 1964.
Women in the Chinese propaganda posters are also depicted as fully equal to men, but like the Soviet Russia, they appear totally absent in the leadership roles.
Li Mubai, Jin Xuechen, Chairman Mao meets with model workers, 1964. It appears that the male model workers are more engaged in their discussion with the Chairman. The woman is placed standing at the back and just admiring the wise and handsome leader!
Most of the times women jobs are depicted as menial agricultural works, like this poster by
Wu Shaoyun, "We sell dry, clean, neat and selected cotton to the state, 1958.
...While men are doing serious industrial jobs, as this poster by Li Zongjin, called "Study the advanced production experience of the Soviet Union, struggle for the industrialization of our country" in 1953 shows. In the early years of the People's Republic of China, the Soviet Union sent many experts to help. Here a Russian industrial expert is shown giving advice. The text at the top is a handwritten announcement of a Russian exhibition.
German War Posters of WWI  |
| We won't tolerate anarchy! We'll protect women and children |
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Christmas collection by the Bavarian Red Cross for the armed forces --Weichnachts Sammlung des bayerischen Roten Kreuzes für die Feldgrauen,
By Fritz Maison, 1917 |
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You, too, should join the Reichswehr. Therefore, sign up at the next enlistment post -- Auch du sollst beitreten zur Reichswehr, München , 1919. Reichswehr-Gruppen-Kommando no. 4 (Bavarian), Möhl, Major General, forming part of: Rehse-Archiv für Zeitgeschichte und Publizistik
By Oscar Consée Kunstanstalt |
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| Bolshevism brings war, unemployment and famine -- Bolshewismus bringt Krieg, Arbeitslosigkeit und Hungersnot. Vereinigung zur Bekämpfung des Bolshewismus. 1918 |
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Freedom, Peace and Work. Elect the German People's Party in Bavaria, (German Democratic Party) -- Freiheit, Friede, Arbeit. Wählt die Deutsche Volkspartei in Bayern,
By Valentin Zietara (1883-1935), |
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This is what the Polish emmigrants look like, and you'll look like this too if Silesia becomes part of Poland. Upper Silesians! Stay with the new Germany! -- So sehen die polnischen Auswanderer aus, und so werdet Ihr auch aussehen, wenn Schlesien zu Polen kommt. Oberschleisier! Bleibt beim neuen Deutschland!, 1919.
By Münzer, Adolf Franz Theodor, 1870-1953 |
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German Anti-Polish poster, 1920. If you vote for Germany in the Upper Silesian plebiscite, prosperity. If you vote for Poland, poverty.-- Bei Deutschland dauern der Wohlstand; bei Polen, Armut und Auswanderung
by Kirchbach, Fritz Gottfried (1888-1942) |
British Empire Posters of WWI  |
| World War I Irish Recruiting Poster |
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| World War I Irish Recruiting Poster |
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| World War I Irish Recruiting Poster |
Austria-Hungary Empire posters of WWI  |
| Poster encouraging the public to subscribe to the 5th War Loan at the Živnostenská bank in Prague or one of its branches |
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| Subscribe to the 8th War Loan |
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| Poster for the National War Relief Exhibition in Pozsony. |
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| For the country, my eyes, for peace, your money. National Consolidated Loan. |
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| “Weapons for death - weapons for life! Subscribe to the Victory Loan. ” 1918. |
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| 1917 - Italy needs meat, wheat, lard, and sugar. Eat little so that food can go to our people, and army of Italy |
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| 1917 "Do your Whole Duty!", by Achille Luciano Mauzan |
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| The French Infantry in battle, by H. Delaspre |
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| For France that Fights |
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| After victory, To work! Help us |
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| National loan for facilitating the reparation of damages caused by the war. |
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| James Montgomery Flagg WWI Posters |
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| Berlin or Bust- Pershing in France |
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| Fight until Victory |
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| "Everything for the war! Suscribe to the 5 1/2% War Loan." |
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| Why did you sell your bonds Do not you want to participate in the industrialization of the USSR? - circa 1922-30 |
Nazi Germany and Soviet propaganda After the first world war practically every government resorted to intense propaganda campaigns for capturing the hearts and the minds of the masses. In particular, the extreme right in the form of fascism and the extreme left in the form of communism found posters a potent tool in their propaganda campaigns. Here are two examples from Nazi Germany, and Soviet Russia.
During the World War II posters were used for a variety of purposes by all sides. They were used to encourage men to sign up and to encourage women to support their men by working in the factory or by buying war bonds.
It is estimated that the U.S. produced more than 200,000 different posters during the second war, more than any other country. Many of the US war posters were designed by the artists who participated in various competitions to produce a design in support of the war. Many corporations produced posters that while supporting the war was also promoting their products. Many corporations were allowed to treat their war propaganda posters as business expenses.
German propaganda in WWII According to a fascinating article by
Steven Heller :
Hitler’s fervent desire to attain propaganda supremacy among nations was a direct result of the German defeat in World War I and his belief that superior allied propaganda trumped Kaiser Wilhelm II’s meager output. Through intensive barrages of posters and other visual media, Britian and America effectively defamed the “Hun” in the eyes of the world, portraying the Kaiser’s military as callous blood-thirsty beasts. The German counterattack was tepid at best. “The Germans were sent into this mighty battle with not so much as a single slogan,” wrote Eugen Hadamovsky, the Nazi propaganda expert and Josef Goebbels’ deputy, in Propaganda and National Power (1933, reprinted by Arno Press in 1972). So when the Nazis came to power, Hitler commissioned a book titled Das Politische Plakat: Eine Psychologische Betrachtung by Erwin Schockel (Franz Eher Verlag, published in 1939), a psychological assesment of English, American, French, Russian and German political posters. It was a handbook for German propagandists and others. ...
Das Politische Plakat was one in a series of textbooks and manuals issued through the Reichspropagandaleitung, based in Munich (Reich Propaganda Office of the Nazi Party, a separate department from the more powerful Berlin-based Ministry of Propaganda and Enlightenment) for use by party members only. Schockel’s message was clear: powerful propagandistic graphics must be simple and memorable.
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| Especially you! |
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| Hitler and Hindenburg for List 1 |
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| Work for Victory. Just Like We Fight for it! |
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| Woman in Luftschuk! |
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| Adolf Hitler is victory! |
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| Give me four years’ time, 1937 |
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| January 30 1933-1943 A fight for a win |
Italian Propaganda in WWII  |
| Victory! for the new social order of civilization |
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| "Each day of fighting brings us closer to the goal" |
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| 'Good blood doesn't lie'. |
Nordic Propaganda Posters  |
Försvaret främst, National Defense first,WWI 1914, By Gunnar Widholm
Sweden never participated in World War one but the threat around Europe were very much present in 1914. Therefore the Swedish military authorities did its best to inform the people regarding the eventuality of war. This poster stressed that the army should be placed as the priority focus. |
The propaganda posters were appeared during the Second World War in Nordic countries. Germany was using intensive propaganda campaigns in the occupied Norway and Denmark particularly to attract volunteers for the German armed forces in the Waffen-SS. In the unoccupied Nordic countries state censorship did not allow propaganda to offend Germany or the Soviet Union. The Finnish Winter War, a military conflict between the Soviet Union and Finland in 1939–1940, that began with Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939 (three months after the outbreak of World War II), and ended with the Moscow Peace Treaty on 13 March 1940 became an important motive for propaganda posters. It is known that at least 8,000 Swedes voluntarily went to Finland to fight alongside the Finns. The Swedish government and public also sent food, clothing, medicine, weapons and ammunition to aid the Finns during this conflict. Despite the fact that angry voices were heard from both Germany and the Soviet Union, a recruitment process for Finnish friviligkåren (The Finnish Volunteer Corps) ran openly, perhaps best shown in a number of posters calling for joining the fight for Finland
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För Norges folk, For the people of Norway - be a volunteer! Swedish propaganda poster from 1928. A political poster that claims everyone that votes for the "Workers party" also votes for Moscow. This is a political poster from the 1928 Swedish election. |
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Edra förfäder hava en gång räddat Sverige från Kristian Tyrann. Gör om edert storverk: en var som röstar på, Arbetarepartiet , röstar på samhällets omstörtande och Bolsjevismens införande, RÄDDA FOSTERLANDET!;-- Men of Dalekarlia! Your forefathers once saved Sweden from Christian the Tyrant. Please repeat your magnificent work. Anybody who votes for the "Labour party" vote for the wrecking of our society and Bolshevism. Save the father Land!")
Swedish propaganda and election poster from 1928. A political propaganda poster, it was one of many in an anti-Communist campaign that was published during the election 1928 in Sweden.
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| Anders Beckman |
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| Andra försvarslånet , The second war loan, By I. Axelsson |
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| SKJUTSKICKLIGHET ökar värnkraften, Shooting skill increases defense, By Anders Beckman |
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| Anders Beckman |
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| Anders Beckman |
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| Kjemp med Hirden -- "Fight with Hirden!") Norwegian propaganda poster for the ruling nazi-party Nasjonal Samling. "Hirden" was the partys storm troopers, just as the German SA. The word hird is norse and means warrior, often in service for the king. |
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| Norwegian SS Recruiting Poster -- "Fight for Norway". |
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Ett folk är i fara - Du kan hjälpa - Nationalinsamlingen för Finland , A people is in danger - you can help - National collection for Finland" By Carl Herman Runnström, 1939
The character in this poster represents Georg Carl von Döbeln, an old Swedish war hero from the Finnish War 1808 - 1809. Von Döbeln had an old head injury from the battle of Porrossalmi 1789 (Gustav III's war) which he concealed with a black silk headband. The damage was caused by a Russian bullet in the forehead and several years after the incident, it was said that one could pick bone pieces from the wound. During the Second Napoleonic war von Döbeln was sentenced to death by martial law after violating the master's orders during a battle against the French. The Swedish King Karl XIV Johan, however, found the punishment highly inappropriate for such a war hero and softened it down to a year in prison on Vaxholm Citadel. His exploits became famous, in Johan Ludvig Runeberg's epic poem "Tales of Ensign Stål" where the hero poem "Döbeln of Jutas" depicts him in the Battle of Jutas. |
With the coming to power of Hitler in Germany in 1933, the situation of Jews in that country began to deteriorate. As the Nazis applied their racial doctrines, the political and civil rights of German Jews were curtailed. Nazi policies met with some resistance, but more often the response of the German population was one of passivity or acquiescence. Many German Jews reacted with disbelief, but others saw the threat to their continued existence in Germany posed by Hitler and his party.
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The Nazi propaganda film “The Eternal Jew”, purporting to be a documentary, was given its public premiere on 28th November 1940. It was all part of the continuing process of desensitizing the general population to the growing persecution of the Jews. The message was presented very crudely, as can be imagined from the poster. Notoriously the film juxtaposed footage of rats with scenes of Jewish life. |
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| "Der ewige Jude" (the eternal Jew). |
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| "Hinter den Feindmächten: Der Jude" created by the artist Hamil. This antisemitic poster depicts a large Jewish man behind the flags of the United States, Russia and Great Britain. It depicts him working behind the scenes in world affairs, manipulating the superpowers. In English, it reads: "Here is behind the hostile powers: the Jew." |
In addition to fostering a German “master race” myth with images of beautiful and handsome Aryan-types, National Socialist propagandists also worked to create a counter-image aimed at uniting the country against a common enemy: the Jew. Ironically, before the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, one might have thought Germany the least likely European country to initiate an all-out war against the Jews. In the pre-Third Reich era, Jews had been emancipated, and the Jewish population had largely assimilated into German society, with high rates of Jewish-German intermarriage. Following Hitler’s rise to power, however, the National Socialist dictatorship began to foster and create stereotypes and unflattering images of Jews and other “degenerate” races to promote fear, distrust, and hatred of the supposed “enemies” of the Third Reich.
The Nazi campaign for “cleansing” the fatherland of foreign and “degenerate” cultural influences that began with the banning and burning of books and the publication of anti-Semitic propaganda, soon escalated into government-sanctioned harassment of Jews, the passage of racist legislation prohibiting intermarriage, the forced segregation of Jews into ghettos, and ultimately, deportation to so-called “work camps” during the Second World War.
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| Nazi WWII German-produced Russian Anti-Semetic propaganda poster. Poster reads: "Jews - A People of Contagion" with a Jewish stereotype-caricature counting money on a mound of skulls. The poster is marked "Russ.ofs.d/1943-230917" . |
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" Which side will be heavier? Neither because the Jew is holding the scale. See the anti-masonic exhibition and then you will know for certain."
Nazi Germany occupied most of Yugoslavia by April 1941. Milan Nedic was the "nomial" local ruler, comparable to the collaborationist regime of Quisling in Norway. Under the Nedic regime a heavily anti-semitic Exhibition opened in occupied Belgrade on 22nd October 1941 and ended January 19, 1942. It was funded apparently by the German occupiers and supported by Nedic to intensify hatred against the Jews, although the title of the exhibit suggested the Masons (Masonic Orders had been closed in Germany).
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| "The Scourge of Mankind", Poland, c.1943 |
The genocide was not only perpetrated by evil doers, but also by those who believed in the propaganda. The complacency of the public was a key component of Hitler’s ideology. The success of Nazi propaganda depended on constant repetition of the demonization of Jews. Printed propaganda reiterated the ideology that Jews were the cause of Germany’s problems and compared them to vermin in need of extermination.
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Cossacks, Now is the Time to Save Your Family and Country! Time to Toss off the Yoke which we have upon us! - 1943 .
Jewish settlements in Ukraine can be traced back to the 8th century. During the period of the Khazar kingdom, Jews lived on the banks of the River Dnieper and in the east and south of Ukraine and the Crimea. The Kingdom was considered the most influential of the medieval period because of its economic and diplomatic standing. The Khazars, an ancient nomadic Turkic people who reached the lower Volga region in the 6th century, were held in high esteem by the pope and other national leaders and played a major role in solving the region’s conflicts. At first, Khazars from royal families converted to Judaism. But other citizen from throughout the Kingdom soon followed suit, adopting Jewish religious practices including reading the Torah, observing the Sabbath, keeping kosher and switching to Hebrew as the official written system. At a time of religious intolerance, tWhen Jews settled in Ukraine, they became more prominent in the trade business, selling dye, cloth, horses, cattle and estates. Jews were also making connections with other Jewish communities in the Ottoman Empire, serving as liaisons between the two worlds. But what Jews were mostly known for — and detested for — was their role in the Polish government as collectors of customs, duties and taxes on behalf of Polish landlords, bankers and physicians.
As Jews prospered, anti-Semitism flourished. The country’s lower classes, including the Ukrainian Cossacks, saw Jews as working for the nation’s wealthy landowners and accused Jews of robbing the wealth of poor people to better enrich them. The Cossacks wanted to free Ukraine from Polish domination — and sought to rule Ukraine. In 1648, the Cossacks, led by Bohdan Chmielicki, began a series of campaigns by instigating the uprising of the Cossacks against the Jews. Chmielicki told people that the Poles had sold them as slaves “into the hands of the accursed Jews.” Angered by this notion, the Cossacks massacred tens of thousands of Jews during 1648-1649, in a war that would later be considered among the worst of that time period.
After the October 1917 Revolution and the civil war, more than 300,000 Jews left Ukraine for other parts of the Soviet Union. But some Jews stayed. The period from March 1917 to August 1920 constitutes a special chapter in the history of the Jews of the Ukraine. The Ukrainians established a National Council (Rada), which in January 1918 proclaimed the separation of Ukraine from Russia; this episode came to an end in August 1920, when the Red Army completed the conquest of the Ukraine. In December 1918, the Jewish ministry passed a law providing for democratic elections to the administrative bodies of the communities , a Jewish National Council was formed, and the Provisional National Council of the Jews of the Ukraine was convened in November 1918. These institutions, however, were short-lived. In July 1918, the autonomy was abolished, the Jewish ministry was dissolved and the pogroms which then took place |
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An initiative to prohibit circumcision in San Francisco had collected enough signatures to put the measure to voters in November 2011. “This comic is modern anti-Semitism at its best. It is one story to fight against circumcision, and another to portray Jews in a false anti-Semitic stereotype. The Jewish depictions look like they came right out of Nazi Germany propaganda in the 1930s and 1940s,” wrote Hailey Dilman in a commentary at Digital Journal. Debra J. Saunders the columnist for the San Francisco Chornicle spoke with Matthew Hess of Foreskinman.com this morning: I asked him if the comic is anti-Semitic. He answered, “A lot of people have said that, but we’re not trying to be anti-Semitic. We’re trying to be pro-human rights.” |
Here is an interview Hess did with Eli Ungar-Sargon, a documentary filmmaker based in Los Angeles, published im JE School:
EUS: Were you familiar with the history of anti-Semitic imagery associated with mohels when you created Monster Mohel? Did this inform your artistic decision-making?
MH: I first saw some of those cartoons in middle school during lessons about World War II and I have seen other examples since then. But they didn’t influence me one way or the other when creating the art for Foreskin Man #2. While I did not wish to borrow anything from those cartoons, I also felt I would not be doing justice if I held back on portraying Monster Mohel and his goons as evil characters simply because they were Jewish.
EUS: Is it simply coincidence that the hero has blonde hair and blue eyes while the villains have darker complexions?
MH: Foreskin Man’s blond hair, blue eyes, and fair skin reflects my own German heritage. I see absolutely no reason to be ashamed of that. Suggestions in the media that Foreskin Man is a Nazi because of the color of his hair is pure racial stereotyping. And Monster Mohel, Yerik, and Jorah were drawn based on photographs of actual mohels.
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After the tweeting of this poster by Trump campaign, Peter Wade described it as "perhaps the most confusing and offensive graphic of the 2016 campaign." Adding "It is offensive on so many levels. It evokes negative Jewish stereotypes and misappropriates a religious symbol." Dana Schwartz, an arts and culture staffer, posted a damning open letter on The Observer website daring her boss Jared Kushner to denounce his father-in-law’s tweet. Headlined “An Open Letter to Jared Kushner, From One of Your Jewish Employees,” she wrote: “I’m asking you, not as a 'gotcha' journalist or as a liberal but as a human being: how do you allow this? (...) Because, Mr. Kushner, you are allowing this. Your father-in-law’s repeated accidental winks to the white supremacist community is perhaps a savvy political strategy if the neo-Nazis are considered a sizable voting block — I confess, I haven’t done my research on that front,” |
Soviet Russia Propaganda in WWII Dmitry Stakhievich Orlov, who was known by his artistic name Dmitry Moor revolutionized the art of propaganda poster in the Soviet Russia. His dramatic treatment of class warfare, with haunting contrasts of then and now, enemies versus heroic allies, imperialism against workers' struggles, to which he added a simplistic slogan: Death to World Imperialism.
Many of Moor's and Deni's posters were restricted to black and red. Red could be used to identify revolutionary elements, particularly flags, worker's shirts and peasant blouses. Black was used for the main drawing and as a solid colour for the clothes of capitalist and priest. His work dominated both the Bolshevik Era (1917–1921) and the New Economic Policy (1921–1927).
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| For home! For Stalin! For world! For communism! |
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| Young builders of communism!Forward, to new successes at work and study! |
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| Serve the People! |
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| Every day more and more joyful life! |
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May the indestructible friendship and collaboration of the Soviet and Chinese peoples survive and strengthen!
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| Bring up a generation of selfless devotion to the cause of communism! |
“This is a struggle, above all else, for the minds of men.Propaganda is one of the most powerful weapons the Communists have in this struggle. … This propaganda can be overcome by truth—plain, simple, unvarnished—presented by newspapers,radio, newsreels, and other sources that people trust..”President Truman, 1950 in Tuch, 1990, p. 15
When the Cold War came into full form in the late 40s, it was only natural that both the US and the USSR would turn to propaganda war. This was a struggle for people's hearts and minds. In 1948, worried that the American public might become the victim of misinformation produced by its own government, Congress passed the Smith-Mundt Act. This Act outlaws the domestic distribution of U.S. government materials intended for foreign audiences. In 1953, the United States Information Agency (USIA), was founded. It was established as a propaganda agency but it was very careful not to use the word "propaganda" to describe any of its activities.
In order to convince Americans that the US was justified in its new battle, the USIA produced anti-communist propaganda in mass quantities. It became very prevalent very quickly. Anti-communist propaganda could soon be found in every major medium including posters, books, pamphlets, comics, radio, films, and eventually TV.
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D. Pjatkin, To Fly Higher Than All, Farther Than All, Faster Than All, 1954,
Published one year after Stalin’s death, this poster reinforces the message that Soviet research and development of weapons and machinery is ongoing. Substantially funded by war reparations from Germany, the Soviets were able to build the MiG-9 Fargo turbo fighter in 1946 and the Yak-15 Feather attack aircraft in 1947. The red stars in the image above symbolise the pilot’s kill score. |
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| "Glory to the Soviet warrior!", by Viktor Ivanov, 1947, |
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| "We are safeguarding the peace and happiness of our beloved Motherland!", by V. Koretsky, 1947, |
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| "Become a member of DOSFLOT! (the Society for Voluntary Support of the Soviet Navy)", by B.D. Velensky, 1948, |
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| "Stalin raised us to be faithful to the Soviet people!", by P. Golub, 1948 |
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| "The masterminds of a new war ought to remember the shameful fiasco of their predecessors!", by N. Bulganin, B. Efimov, and N. Dolgorukov, 1948 |
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| "Glory to Stalin's eagles!", by E.S. Malotetkov, 1948 |
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| "Glory to the Soviet People!", by Viktor Ivanov, 1947 |
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M. V. Luk'janov and V.S. Karakashev,People and the Party Are Undivided, 1978,
In this poster, banners carried by marching Soviet citizens create a somewhat subtle image of Lenin’s face. The caption reads “People and the party are undivided.” This famous Soviet slogan first appeared in Pravda, the leading newspaper of the Soviet |
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B. Reshetnikov, A Mighty Sports Power, 1962
By 1962, sporting events such as the Olympic Games had become hotly contested between the Soviet Union and the USA. Each was desperate to win in order to demonstrate their power and dominance over the other. In the 1956 and 1960 Olympic Games, the Soviet Union was victorious. The character in this poster has been painted to resemble an Olympic torch, with gold medals in the background. |
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V. Briskin, Lenin, 1970,
The Soviet Union was keen to promote a positive image of itself throughout the early 1970s against a backdrop of the Vietnam War and a highly volatile relationship with the USA. Posters such as this helped to keep Lenin’s political ideologies alive. With no slogans or foreign words whatsoever, this poster was clearly designed for a European and American audience. |
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| “We are with you, Vietnam!” |
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Unknown, Jo-Jo The Dove, 1951.
French anti-communist group, Paix et Liberté, created this poster, which openly mocks Stalin’s advocacy of peaceful values. Stalin is depicted as a peace protestor with sinister motives, holding a “Peace” sign in one hand and a bommy-knocker in the other. |
Caucasian Dance: Stalin, having stuck the knife in Hungary, Romania and China, turns to France, surrounded by the French communists Duclos and Thorez, anti-communist poster by the 'Paix et Liberte' movement, 1951
A French book titled This is What the Bolshevist will Bring to Europe, published in 1934 or 1935
Bolshevism brings war, unemployment and famine, a German poster from 1918
Germany's ideal future under the leadership of the Bolsheviks, 1919
Civilization or barbarism – Don't you still understand?, a Dutch poster from the 1940s
Do you want to live in the shadow of him?, A Norwegian anti-communist poster
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Gennady Andreyevich Zyuganov (Генна́дий Андре́евич Зюга́нов) , First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (since 1993), and Chairman of the Union of Communist Parties - Communist Party of the Soviet Union (UCP-CPSU) (since 2001) reading Pravda -- like Lenin.
Zyuganov quickly emerged as post-communist Russia's leading opposition leader. He argued that the collapse of the Soviet Union led to a decline in living standards, that economic power was left concentrated in the hands of a tiny share of the population, that violent crime increased, and that the Soviet collapse allowed ethnic groups throughout Russia to embark on campaigns, sometimes violent, to win autonomy. |
Soviet Space Program
Ludwig Hohlwein,. Red Cross Collection 1914. Collection in support of volunteer nursing in the war. 1914,
Jin Meisheng, The seeds have been well selected, the harvest is more bountiful every year, 1964.
Most of the times women jobs are depicted as menial agricultural works, like this poster by
...While men are doing serious industrial jobs, as this poster by Li Zongjin, called "Study the advanced production experience of the Soviet Union, struggle for the industrialization of our country" in 1953 shows. In the early years of the People's Republic of China, the Soviet Union sent many experts to help. Here a Russian industrial expert is shown giving advice. The text at the top is a handwritten announcement of a Russian exhibition. 
1984 - Deng Xiaoping's four Basic principles: We must keep to the socialist road. We must uphold the dictatorship of the proletariat. We must uphold the leadership of the Communist Party. We must uphold Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought.
The propagandists boasted that:
Start Mass Emigration.
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