"The masses need something that will give them a thrill of horror."
- Joseph Goebbels
Joseph Goebbels speaks on the dangers of Judaism at a Nazi rally. Source: Discovery Channel.
Poster by Louis Hirshman. Source: Ohio History Connection.
These three posters communicate racism and fear to their advantage. The first is an anti-Japanese poster that depicts the Japanese as satanic in appearance. What makes this poster effective is that it connects two unrelated things (the Japanese and disposal of matches). Anti-Japanese sentiment was intense among Americans, so the poster could cause them to dispose of matches as a patriotic act.
The second poster also uses exaggerated caricatures of both Black people and Jews, who are violating the presumably Aryan woman in the middle. This poster depicts these men to be evil and primal, and uses hatred and fear of the other to promote nationalism.
Source: Calvin University.
Source: Calvin University.
This poster is unique because it invokes racism to insult France and feed German nationalism. The poster accomplishes this by showing an Algerian soldier who has looted a French woman, with the caption of "robbery, murder, and racial defilement." The implication here is that France had become racially impure and therefore deserved to be taken over by Germany.