Aliwa Kami Lan Totoo! ("We Are No Longer Real People!") (Pangasinan 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 real 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
- Date
- March 26, 1951
- Period
- Cold War
- Made by
- U.S. Information Agency (predecessor: State Department International Information and Educational Exchange Program), Propaganda Posters Distributed in Asia series
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Truman Administration
- Leader
- Harry S. Truman
- Audience
- Foreign public
- Purpose
- Demonize
- Themes
- Religion, War and the military
- Event
- Cold War
- Source
- Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure
- Source
- U.S. National Archives (NARA), Record Group 306, Propaganda Posters Distributed in Asia, retrieved October 3, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work; NARA RG 306)
U.S. Information Agency / Department of State, March 26, 1951. National Archives, Record Group 306 (NAID 5730161, 306-PPA-260).
Text on the object
"ALIWA KAMI LAN TOTOO!" (SULAT NA SAKEY YA MADREN NANLAPUD RUSYA) "INAROK IRAN ATATENG: "Asabin siansia so samay oras ya gabay kon amtaen yo ya siak et wala nin bilay. Awaten yo payan sulat? Abayag la may impakaiyakarmi ed Rusya. Agyo amta no panoy iliw ko tan pilalek kon ontoktok ed puerta yo. Diad bayag lan agko impansulat agyo kami komon lilinguanan. Pikasi mo kami! Tulongan mo kami! Naglalo lad irap mi tan diad amiamin ya kiratngan mi, agyo kami komon ikakaindan! Abaguey mo kami! [...] [letter continues for several further paragraphs; remainder not transcribed] [boxed note:] Say impakasalasay na kairapan ya agamil daray 1,500 ya mamadre ed gawa ray aripen ed campo diad Rusya, sinmabi ed labas na mundo, nen nansulat ed ateng to so sakey ya madren Aleman. Sayan sulat ginawa tan inyamot ton impaway diad campo. Naigalut yan sulat diad Europa et naawat daray agagin Christian Brothers ed Beltsville, Md. Inkurit yan sulat ed "The Crusaders" diad Brooklyn nen saman. Insalin daray Aleman ed salitan Inglis so sayan estoria daray mamadre tan say pirawat da ed dasal. (Nanlapud "The Crusader" diad Brooklyn, N. Y.) Imbinog na organisasion na Katoliko ed Pilipinas
"We are no longer real people!" (A letter from one of the nuns from Russia.) "My dear parents: It is a miracle that I have a chance to let you know that I am still alive. Will you accept this letter? We were taken to Russia long ago. You do not know how great my longing is, and how I knock at your door. For a long time I could not write, so do not forget us. Pity us! Help us! Our hardship has grown and in everything we have, we are no longer ..." [boxed note:] The report of the hardship of the 1,500 nuns working as slaves in a camp in Russia reached the outside world when a German nun wrote to her parents. This letter was smuggled out of the camp. The letter was carried to Europe and received by the Christian Brothers in Beltsville, Md.; it was published in 'The Crusader' in Brooklyn. [Imprint:] From 'The Crusader', Brooklyn, N.Y. [Credit:] Formed by the Catholic organisation in the Philippines. (Literal and partial, with uncertainty in Pangasinan wording; the omitted letter body is 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.
