Artifact
Poster depicting the Statue of Liberty and flags of Allied Nations
Poster titled “The United Nations Fight For Freedom.” It was one of many posters produced by the Office of War Information, the United States’s official propaganda agency during World War II. Canadian-American commercial artist Steve Broder (1902-1992) designed this work to bolster confidence in the Allied war effort against the Axis Powers (Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan). It depicts the 30 flags of countries that signed the Declaration by the United Nations and declared war on the Axis powers. This declaration pledged the signatories to employ their full resources to the Allied war effort, and prevented them from making a separate peace with the Axis powers. The poster uses the Statue of Liberty to convey to audiences that the Allies (United Nations) were fighting to preserve freedom and democracy.
The displayed flags include: the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, China, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, the Philippines, Poland, South Africa, and Yugoslavia. Iraq also signed the declaration, though the flag is not displayed.
Tags
- US Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, gift of David and Zelda Silberman