---
title: Saancamin a Maibilang a Tattao! ("We Are No Longer Counted as People!") (Iloko poster distributed in the Philippines)
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/we-are-no-longer-human-beings-iloko-1951/
description: A letter attributed to a nun held in a Soviet forced-labour camp is printed beside comic-style drawings of hooded women crowded together. (2 of 3)
section: Collection
---

1. [Home](https://propagandaarchive.org/)
2. [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)
3. Saancamin a Maibilang a Tattao!

[![Saancamin a Maibilang a Tattao! ("We Are No Longer Counted as People!"), 1951 US poster: A letter attributed to a nun held](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/we-are-no-longer-human-beings-iloko-1951.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/we-are-no-longer-human-beings-iloko-1951.jpg)

# Saancamin a Maibilang a Tattao! ("We Are No Longer Counted as People!") (Iloko poster distributed in the Philippines)

A letter attributed to a nun held in a Soviet forced-labour camp is printed beside comic-style drawings of hooded women crowded together, guards in helmets with whips and bayonets, a pickaxe, and a bridge over a river. The headline is the letter's cry that the women are 'no longer counted as people'. The sheet argues that 1,500 German nuns are held in a Soviet camp. The tell is fear-appeal and testimonial: a first-person letter and scenes of suffering, with no corroboration printed on the sheet.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/) [Testimonial](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/testimonial/)

## Text on the object

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

```
"SAANCAMIN A MAIBILANG A TATTAO!"

SURAT A NAGGAPU ITI MAYSA A MADRE IDIAY RUSSIA

"AY-AYATEC A NAGANNAC CANIAC:

"Yamanen iti Dios ta naiccanac iti gundaway a mangted cadayo iti pagilasinan nga addaac pay la a biag. Maawatyo met la ngata daytoy a surat? Naundayen a pannawen ti napalabas calpasan ti pannacaipaingmi ditoy Russia. Maricnayo ngata ti iliwco ken ti nasged a tarigagayco a sumarungcar cadayo? Mamin-anon a diac nacapagsurat: didacam liplipatan! Yetnagyo cadacami ti tulongyo! Nagbalincamin a nacaay-ay ket nabaybay-ancamin! Didacam liplipatan! Pangaasiyo ta icarcararagandacami! [...]

[letter continues for several further paragraphs; remainder not transcribed]

[boxed note:] Naiwaragawag iti sangalubongan ti nalawag a ladawan ti panagsagaba dagiti sangaribu ket lima gasut a mamadre a naipupoc iti campo dagiti maadipen nga agtrabtrabajo iti maysa a disso idiay Russia idi inlibas ti maysa a madre nga Aleman ti impatulod ti suratna cadagiti nagannac kencuana.
Nasayaat ti pannacairacurac ti surat cadagiti nadumaduma a pagilian iti Europa ket naawat met dagiti camcameng ti Christian Brothers idiay Beltsville, Md., Estados Unidos. Naipablaac itay nabiit iti "The Crusader" ti Brooklyn. [...]

(Naipablaac iti "The Crusader" ti Brooklyn, N. Y.)

(Ibumbunong ti Gimong dagiti Agtutubo a Catolico ti Filipinas.)
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
"We are no longer counted as people!" A letter from a nun in Russia. "My dear parents: Thank God I have been given a chance to let you know that I am still alive. Will this letter reach you? A long time has passed since we were brought here to Russia. Can you feel my longing and my earnest wish to approach you? Many times I could not write: do not forget us! Give us your help! We have become wretched and forsaken! Do not forget us! Please pray for us!" [boxed note:] The clear picture of the suffering of the 1,500 nuns imprisoned in a slave-labour camp somewhere in Russia was made known worldwide when a German nun smuggled her letter out to her parents. The letter was published in various countries of Europe and also reached the Christian Brothers in Beltsville, Md., U.S.A.; it was recently published in 'The Crusader' of Brooklyn. [Imprint:] (Published in 'The Crusader', Brooklyn, N.Y.) (Collected by the Catholic Youth Movement of the Philippines.) (Literal and partial; the omitted parts are not translated.)
```

Body of the letter transcribed only in part (about the first two paragraphs); the rest is marked as not transcribed. Small type may contain misreadings.

[← Dili Na Kami Mga Tawo! ("We Are No Longer Human Beings!") (Cebuano poster distributed in the Philippines)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/we-are-no-longer-human-beings-cebuano-1951/) [世界最大的監獄 (The World's Largest Prison), U.S. map-and-newspaper-clipping poster (catalog title: Red "Bastille") →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/worlds-largest-prison-red-bastille-usia-poster-1951/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Miniature of Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, Les Passages d'outremer (BnF Fr. 5594, fol. 19r)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passages-doutremer-council-of-clermont-colombe-1474/) (France · 1474 · Testimonial, Fear appeal). Content note: Medieval religious imagery and a French text describing alleged killings and captivity of eastern Christians, as used to argue for the First Crusade; the text is shown as written.
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers.
- [Der Warner (broadsheet lampoon on the Jesuits after Breitenfeld and Rain)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/der-warner-anti-jesuit-broadsheet-1632/) (Holy Roman Empire · 1632 · Scapegoating, Fear appeal)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Proclamation de Sonthonax en créole, Cap-Français (Proclamation of Commissioner Sonthonax in Creole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sonthonax-proclamation-creole-1793/) (France · Aug 29, 1793 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating). Content note: Colonial-era proclamation on slavery and emancipation in Saint-Domingue; speaks of slaves, whips and 'Nègues' in period terms.
- [Gazette of the United States, "The Jeffersoniad" no. VIII, 14 August 1800](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gazette-us-jeffersoniad-1800/) (United States · Aug 14, 1800 · Name-calling, Fear appeal)
- [Tyrants Prostrate, Liberty Triumphant (pro-Polk cartoon on Dorr), 1844](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/tyrants-prostrate-liberty-triumphant-polk-1844/) (United States · 1844 · Name-calling, Fear appeal). Content note: Speech balloons contain anti-Catholic and nativist wording ('the ruins of Popery') in the mouths of the Whig figures, written by a Democratic cartoonist and shown unaltered.
- [Brolej Žemajčiaj! (Brothers Samogitians!): hand-painted broken-cross poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/brolej-zemajciaj-broken-cross-1862/) (Russian Empire · 1862 · Fear appeal, Transfer)