Ben Shahn (1898-1969), designer

This is Nazi brutality

OWI Poster No. 11

Offset lithograph

[Washington, D.C.]

Government Printing Office; U.S. Office of War Information

1942

Mounted to 30 1/2 x 40 1/2 in. 

A stark and arresting poster issued in response to the 1942 Lidice Massacre, which saw Nazis completely destroy the village of Lidice and all its inhabitants, including children, in reprisal for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich.

Set against a brick wall and an ominous sky, a figure dominates the frame - their head hooded and each wrist in manacles. The legend reproduces the official German radio broadcast: "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".

On 27 May 1942, Reinhard Heydrich, the acting Reichsprotektor of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and a principal architect of the Holocaust, was attacked by the Czechoslovak resistance operatives Jozef Gabčík and Jan Kubiš. Heydrich died of his wounds 8 days later, and in direct retaliation, Adolf Hitler and Heydrich's successor, Kurt Daluege, ordered the annihilation of Lidice. 

Contrary to the Radio Berlin report reproduced here, the massacre saw children deliberately killed and stands as one of the most documented instances of German war crimes during World War II. 

[World War II, WWII,  FDR, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Adolf Hitler, Allied, Axis, George S. Patton, Air Force] [Propaganda, Posters]

Professionally mounted. Complete condition report available upon request