us-005578-irn521353-irn521356
type: RecordSet
archival history: The poster was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2001 by Yehuda Nir.
biographical history: 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. Julius Gruenfeld (later Yehuda Nir) was born on March 31, 1930, in Lvov, Poland, to Samuel and Sidonia Grunfeld. Samuel was an affluent manufacturer of handwoven carpets. His sister Lala was born in 1924, After the start of World War II, the family fled to Romania, but after learning that Lvov fell under Soviet rather than German rule, they returned home. Under the Communist system, Samuel was classified a capitalist and the state confiscated his business and home. The family had to move into a smaller apartment in the same building. In June 1941, Germany attacked the Soviet Union and occupied Lvov. With German encour…
physical characteristics and technical requirements: 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.
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
conditions of use: No restrictions on use
date: 1942 June 11
has beginning date: 1942-01-01
has end date: 1942-12-31
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 1
has or had some members with language: eng
has record set type: Item
identifier: irn521356
is or was included in: us-005578-irn521353
record resource extent: overall: Height: 37.750 inches (95.885 cm) | Width: 28.375 inches (72.073 cm)
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: 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 protests the retaliatory measures taken for the assassination by Czech resistance members of Reinhard Heydrich, a close associate of Himmler and Hitler and major implementor of the Final Solution for the Jewish problem. On May 1942, when Heydrich was acting Reich Protector in the former Czech provinces of Bohemia and Moravia, a hand grenade exploded under his car in Prague. Heydrich died on June 4 as a result of his injuries. Hitler personally ordered the destruction of Lidice, which occurred June 9, in retaliation for Heydrich's death.
title: Ben Shahn poster with an image of a hooded man protesting the Nazi destruction of Lidice