What They Fight Against - Czechoslovakia

A blue sheet numbered 18 with three halftone photographs: crowds facing German motorcyclists in a street, a postcard view of Lidice, and two uniformed men labelled Himmler and Heydrich. The tell is the vocabulary applied to named people ('Nazi gangsters', 'butchers of Czechoslovakia') beside a list of killings, forced labour and the razing of Lidice, with no sources given for the figures.

Propaganda techniques used in this poster

Name-callingFear appeal

Date

1939

Period

Second World War

Made by

Not stated on the sheet (numbered 18); issuer and country of origin not established

Region

Eastern Europe and Eurasia

Country

Czechoslovakia

Medium

Poster

Issuer type

State

Regime

Czechoslovak Government in Exile

Leader

Edvard Benes

Audience

Foreign public

Purpose

Demonize

Themes

War and the military, Security and surveillance

Event

World War II

Source

Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure

Source

U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Foreign Posters, retrieved October 3, 2026

Rights

Held by NARA, Unrestricted; hosted by owner decision
Issuer not stated, National Archives and Records Administration, 44-PF-779.

WHAT THEY FIGHT AGAINST

1 The invaders are not welcome.
2 The small village of Lidice.
3 Himmler and Heydrich, the butchers of Czechoslovakia.

The fate of Czechoslovakia was sealed at Munich in 1938. On the Ides of March, 1939, Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia. The terror and oppression started. Neurath, Himmler and Heydrich, the Nazi gangsters, took over and set to work.

Hundreds of Czechoslovaks were shot or hanged without trial. Thousands tortured to death in dread concentration camps. About a million were dragged off to Germany for forced labour.

After the shooting of Heydrich an entire mining villiage—Lidice—was razed to the ground and, according to the latest information received, its 1200 men, women and children were murdered.

All Czechoslovak universities and technical colleges were closed. All political rights swept away...No part of Czechoslovak national life escaped the terror.

18