Content note: A German soldier drags a girl past a burning town, implying abduction and sexual violence against a child. This object is shown as it was published. Why
Remember Belgium. Buy Bonds. Fourth Liberty Loan
A German soldier in a spiked helmet, drawn as a black silhouette, pulls a girl by the hand past a burning town under the words 'Remember Belgium'. The implied threat to the girl carries the poster, the pickelhaube stands for the whole German army, and 'Buy bonds' is the one remedy offered, three years and an ocean away from the 1914 events it recalls.
- Date
- 1918
- Period
- First World War
- Made by
- U.S. Treasury Department, Fourth Liberty Loan; artist Ellsworth Young
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Wilson Administration
- Leader
- Woodrow Wilson
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Fundraise
- Themes
- War and the military, Economy and finance
- Event
- World War I
- Techniques
- Fear appealTransfer
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Library of Congress, retrieved September 27, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain in the U.S. (published before 1931)
Young, Ellsworth, artist. 1918. Library of Congress, LC-USZC4-4441.
Text on the object
REMEMBER BELGIUM Buy Bonds Fourth Liberty Loan Ellsworth Young [artist's signature, lower left]
Small printer's credit line at the very bottom edge of the sheet is too small to read at this resolution and is not transcribed. The photographed copy is bordered by Kodak color/gray-scale calibration strips added for archival photography, not part of the original poster.
