If these Nazi war workers dared speak, they'd say- "Americans, protect your system of individual freedom-Dictatorship means slavery-not security."

Sheet no. 168 in a ThinkAmerican series: a photograph captioned as taken secretly shows workers filling shell casings in a Nazi war plant, above a message put in the workers' mouths. The imagined speech is a testimonial the pictured people did not give; 'individual freedom' and 'slavery' are broad value words with no specifics.

Propaganda techniques used in this poster

Testimonial Glittering generalities

Date: 1941
Period: Second World War
Made by: ThinkAmerican Institute (Kelly-Read & Co., Rochester, N.Y.); photograph credited Interphoto
Region: North America
Country: United States
Medium: Poster
Issuer type: Corporation
Regime: Roosevelt Administration
Leader: Franklin D. Roosevelt
Audience: Domestic public
Purpose: Persuade or win support
Themes: Home front, War and the military
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)
ThinkAmerican Institute. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-1058 (NAID 514582).

Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

THIS PHOTO, TAKEN SECRETLY, SHOWS WORKERS IN A NAZI WAR PLANT
INTERPHOTO
If these Nazi war
workers dared speak,
they'd say-"Americans,
protect your system of
individual freedom-
Dictatorship means
slavery-not security."
THINKAMERICAN INSTITUTE
THINKAMERICAN
REG. U.S. PAT. OFF.
No. 168-COPYRIGHT,-KELLY-READ & CO., ROCHESTER, N.Y.
603