Transcription of 1942 mustard-yellow poster with black text and black sketches from the Library of Congress that I blogged here. Text in square brackets describes the sketch.

[Sketch top right: Goebbels in uniform at a lectern, reading loudly from a multi-page text into a microphone decorated with a swastika]

HITLER WANTS US TO BELIEVE THAT:

  • Democracy is dying.
  • Our armed forces are weak.
  • The “New Order” is inevitable.
  • Jews cause everybody’s troubles, everywhere.
  • We are lost in the Pacific.
  • Our West Coast is in such grave danger there is no point in fighting on.
  • The British are decadent, and “sold us a bill of goods.”
  • Some sort of “peace” can be made with Nazi Germany.
  • The cost of the war will bankrupt the nation.
  • Civilian sacrifices will be more than we can bear.
  • Our leaders are incompetent; our government incapable of waging war.
  • Stalin is getting too strong, and Bolshevism will sweep over Europe.
  • Aid to our allies must stop.
  • This is a “white man’s war”; our real peril is the Japanese, and we must join Germany to stamp out the “Yellow Peril.”
  • We must bring all our troops and weapons back to the United States, and defend only our own shores.
  • The Chinese, the British, and the Russians will make separate peace with Japan and Germany.
  • American democracy will be lost during the war; the two-party system is dead; Congressional elections will never again be held.

[Sketch of a uniformed Hitler whispering into the ear of a skeptical man to our right: “THE BRITISH BZ-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z.” At the same time he is whispering to a man to our left, “THE AMERICANS BZ-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z.” Since he is looking in two directions at once, he has two heads.]

AMERICANS WILL NOT BE FOOLED!