Content note: Red line caricature of a head with a swastika-marked pen for a mouth, and a quoted Nazi spokesman's description of German emigrants as 'uprooted creatures'. This object is shown as it was published. Why
What Nazis think of German-Americans
A red line caricature of a head in profile, labelled 'LIES' on the cheek and with a swastika-marked pen as its mouth, sits above a bilingual text. German typewriter-strip lines and an English gloss quote a Berlin spokesman of 28 October 1942 calling German emigrants 'uprooted creatures'. The poster selects one quoted insult to address German-Americans, and its own caricature is name-calling aimed at the Nazi regime.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1943
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Office of War Information
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Diaspora or minority
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Themes
- War and the military, Migration, Home front
- 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)
Office of War Information. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-375 (NAID 513827).
Text on the object
WHAT NAZIS THINK OF GERMAN-AMERICANS Braun von Stumm, Sprecher für Joseph Goebbels, bezeichnete die deutschen Einwanderer in Amerika in einer Presse-Konferenz im Ministerium für Presse und Propaganda, Wilhelmstrasse, Berlin, den 28. Oktober 1942, folgenderweise: Braun von Stumm, spokesman for Joseph Goebbels, at a press conference held in the Ministry of Press and Propaganda, Wilhelmstrasse, Berlin, on October 28, 1942, described German emigrants to America as follows: = OKTOBER 28 15:33 NACHMITTAG BERLIN OCTOBER 28 3:33 P.M. BERLIN DEUTSCHE EMIGRANTEN SIND VOELLIG GERMAN EMIGRANTS ARE COMPLETELY ENTWURZELTE KREATUREN DIE DIE BEZEICH- UPROOTED CREATURES WHO DO NUNG "DEUTSCH" NICHT VERDIENEN = NOT DESERVE TO BE CALLED GERMAN [inside the caricature:] LIES [imprint:] OWI Poster No. 48. Additional copies may be obtained upon request from the Division of Public Inquiries, Office of War Information, Washington, D.C. [imprint:] U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1943-O-512675
Braun von Stumm, spokesman for Joseph Goebbels, described the German immigrants in America at a press conference in the Ministry of Press and Propaganda, Wilhelmstrasse, Berlin, on 28 October 1942, as follows: October 28, 3:33 p.m., Berlin. German emigrants are completely uprooted creatures who do not deserve the designation 'German'.
Left column and typewriter strips are German; the English gloss beneath each is printed on the sheet.
