Content note: Painted image of a child who appears dead, carried from a fire. This object is shown as it was published. Why
"If only there had been more of the stuff you guys make...this wouldn't have happened...Produce..." This is YOUR war!
Production-drive poster: a grim man in dark clothes carries a limp child through fire and smoke. Beneath, a quotation addressed to war workers says that more output would have prevented this, followed by 'This is YOUR war!'. The dead child is the fear-appeal; the underlined YOUR fuses the viewer with the scene and assigns personal responsibility.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1943
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Unnamed issuer; artist Kipp Soldwedel
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Mixed
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Mobilize or secure compliance
- Themes
- War and the military, Labor
- Event
- World War II
- Regime
- Roosevelt administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, retrieved October 4, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
Unnamed issuer; artist Kipp Soldwedel. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-1055 (NAID 514579).
Text on the object
"If only there had been more of the stuff you guys make...this wouldn't have happened...Produce..." This is YOUR war! [signature:] Kipp Soldwedel '43 [imprint: illegible]
