---
title: Italian fascist propaganda posters, slogans and Allied replies, 1915 to 1942
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/italian-fascist-propaganda-posters/
description: 'Italian fascist propaganda posters, slogans and cartoons, 1915 to 1942: Kingdom war-loan sheets, PNF election posters and Allied replies, sourced.'
section: FRAME
---

![Illustration: a dossier collage of an evidence wall of pinned propaganda posters, leaflets and printed matter from many eras, with contact sheets and catalog labels.](https://propagandaarchive.org/static/generated/hero-collection.jpg)

Collection

# Italian fascist propaganda posters, slogans and Allied replies, 1915 to 1942

Italian fascist propaganda posters, slogans and cartoons, 1915 to 1942: Kingdom war-loan sheets, PNF election posters and Allied replies, sourced.

1. [Home](https://propagandaarchive.org/)
2. [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)
3. Italian fascist propaganda posters

[![Buenos Aires 1910: Esposizioni Internazionali, Partecipazione ufficiale dell'Italia (Buenos Aires 1910: International Expositions, Official Participation of Italy)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/buenos-aires-1910-italian-participation-1910-640.jpg)Buenos Aires 1910: Esposizioni Internazionali, Partecipazione ufficiale dell'Italia (Buenos Aires 1910: International Expositions, Official Participation of Italy)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/buenos-aires-1910-italian-participation-1910/) [![Parlano di pace e nascondono il pugnale! (They Talk of Peace and Hide the Dagger!)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/parlano-di-pace-nascondono-il-pugnale-borilli-1918-640.jpg)Parlano di pace e nascondono il pugnale! (They Talk of Peace and Hide the Dagger!)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/parlano-di-pace-nascondono-il-pugnale-borilli-1918/) [![VI Aprile: Sveglia per le coscienze che dormono. Votate la Lista Nazionale (Fascist election poster, 1924)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/vi-aprile-sveglia-lista-nazionale-1924.png)VI Aprile: Sveglia per le coscienze che dormono. Votate la Lista Nazionale (Fascist election poster, 1924)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/vi-aprile-sveglia-lista-nazionale-1924/) [![L'Unione Sarda, 24 March 1929: 'Il voto di oggi, è atto di fede' (plebiscite day front page)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/unione-sarda-plebiscito-front-page-1929-640.jpg)L'Unione Sarda, 24 March 1929: 'Il voto di oggi, è atto di fede' (plebiscite day front page)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/unione-sarda-plebiscito-front-page-1929/) [!["Credere Obbedire Combattere": a school group photograph, Mirandola, 1938](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/credere-obbedire-combattere-mirandola-1938.jpg)"Credere Obbedire Combattere": a school group photograph, Mirandola, 1938](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/credere-obbedire-combattere-mirandola-1938/) [![Small Figures Assembling a Swastika-Marked Mechanical Giant (untitled)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/hitler-mussolini-puppet-masters-1945-640.jpg)Small Figures Assembling a Swastika-Marked Mechanical Giant (untitled)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hitler-mussolini-puppet-masters-1945/)

> **Content note.** The 1919 poster of a clenched hand strangling a serpent covered in Iron Crosses, and the 1918 field-grey "hypocrite thieves" caricature, depict the enemy as an animal or a grotesque, as the Italian state's printers issued them. The 1941 and 1942 Allied items mock named living leaders. They are shown as issued. Showing an item is not endorsing it.

[What did Italian fascist propaganda posters look like?](https://propagandaarchive.org/italian-fascist-propaganda-posters/#what-did-italian-fascist-propaganda-posters-look-like) [Before the Fascists](https://propagandaarchive.org/italian-fascist-propaganda-posters/#before-the-fascists-the-kingdom-s-war-posters-1915-to-1920) [The Fascist period, 1924 to 1943](https://propagandaarchive.org/italian-fascist-propaganda-posters/#the-fascist-period-1924-to-1943) [The Allied answer, 1940 to 1942](https://propagandaarchive.org/italian-fascist-propaganda-posters/#the-allied-answer-1940-to-1942) [Earlier colonial postcards](https://propagandaarchive.org/italian-fascist-propaganda-posters/#earlier-colonial-postcards) [What the collection does not hold](https://propagandaarchive.org/italian-fascist-propaganda-posters/#what-the-collection-does-not-hold)

## What did Italian fascist propaganda posters look like?

Italian fascist posters used the national flag, the Roman eagle, the fasces and the leader's name. Some are National Fascist Party (PNF) sheets, but the style predates the party: the Kingdom of Italy's 1915 to 1920 war-loan posters set the visual habits, and the Allies answered the regime with their own leaflets and posters.

![Poster, 1918: a crowned Italia with a Savoy cross reaches toward two kneeling women under aeroplanes](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/finalmente-metlicovitz-1918.jpg)

## Before the Fascists: the Kingdom's war posters, 1915 to 1920

Leopoldo Metlicovitz's "Finalmente!!" (1918) personifies Italia as a crowned, sword-bearing woman receiving two women, so that a territorial claim reads as a rescue ([Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)). E. Ducci's 1915 sheet, approved by the censor, names the enemy rulers "executioners of humanity" while Civilisation points at them ([Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/)).

![Poster, 1917: a crowned woman with the Savoy flag drives a sword at a winged-helmet barbarian](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/sottoscrivete-al-prestito-capranesi-1917.jpg)

**Content note:** Caricature of an Austro-German soldier as a hypocrite with a hidden dagger; text calls the enemy 'hypocritical thieves'. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was) ![Poster, 1918: a stooped soldier in field grey offers a sheet of peace chatter with a dagger behind his back](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/parlano-di-pace-nascondono-il-pugnale-borilli-1918.jpg)

![Poster, 1919: a hand grips a serpent patterned with Iron Crosses](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/attenti-veleno-1919.jpg)

![Poster, 1918: two smiths hammer a sword into a ploughshare under the legend Weapons of death, weapons for life](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/armi-della-morte-prestito-1918.jpg)

![Poster, 1920: two panels contrasting an idle man beside a low lira with labourers beside a high lira](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/ozio-miseria-lavoro-ricchezza-prestito-1920.jpg)

Explain moreShow less

Gino Capranesi's 1917 loan poster casts the unnamed enemy as an archaic barbarian ([Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/)). Alfredo Ortelli's 1918 soldier with bandaged eyes, issued by the National Loan banking consortium, pairs his sacrifice with the buyer's money ([Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)).

Borilli's "They Talk of Peace and Hide the Dagger!" labels Austrian and German negotiators "hypocrite thieves" ([Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/)). The 1919 serpent poster collapses a whole nation into one animal ([Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/)).

T. Corbella's smiths use abstractions in place of any rate or maturity ([Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/)). The 1920 "Idleness - Misery, Work - Wealth" poster reduces the exchange rate to a two-way choice ([Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/)).

![PNF election poster of 1924, as reproduced in L'Illustration: ruin under a red flag beside reapers in a field](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/bolscevismo-fascismo-pnf-illustration-1924.jpg)

## The Fascist period, 1924 to 1943

The PNF's 1924 election poster sets "1919 - Bolscevismo" beside "1923 - Fascismo": chosen scenes of disorder against chosen scenes of order, with the difference credited to ideology ([Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/), [Scapegoating](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/scapegoating/)). A postcard version weighs lira against franc ([Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/)).

![Fascist election postcard, 1924: scales weigh a lira against a franc over marching Blackshirts](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/bolscevismo-fascismo-lira-franco-postcard-1924.jpg)

![Giant letters on a grassy embankment spelling MUSSOLINI HA SEMPRE RAGIONE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/mussolini-ha-sempre-ragione-1935.jpg)

![Faded wall slogan Molti nemici molto onore above a facsimile Mussolini signature, Syracuse](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/molti-nemici-molto-onore-siracusa-wall-slogan.jpg)

![Queue at a collection desk in Milan under a poster reading Date oro alla Patria](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/oro-alla-patria-milan-1935.jpg)

![Il Becco Giallo cartoon of men playing tombola on the Matteotti murder](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/becco-giallo-tombola-matteotti-1925.jpg)

Explain moreShow less

The slogans went onto walls. A giant "MUSSOLINI HA SEMPRE RAGIONE" on an embankment, printed in L'Illustration in 1935, puts the leader beyond testing ([Cult of personality](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/cult-of-personality/)); "Molti nemici molto onore" in Syracuse recasts foreign hostility as a mark of honour ([Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/)).

In Milan in December 1935, during the Ethiopian war, the PNF's "Oro alla Patria" drive had people queue under a poster of a helmeted Italia to hand in gold rings ([Identity fusion](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/identity-fusion/), [Bandwagon](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/bandwagon/)).

Not everything was official. The Rome satirical weekly Il Becco Giallo drew De Bono and Mussolini as players of "Tombola!" after the Matteotti murder in 1925, accusing by insinuation ([Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/)).

![Cover spread of a British booklet for Italians showing Hitler and Mussolini laughing in a car, Here are your allies](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/ecco-i-vostri-alleati-pwe-italy-1941.jpg)

## The Allied answer, 1940 to 1942

Britain's Political Warfare Executive (attributed) produced "Ecco i vostri alleati" (1941), pasting an Italian stamp image over a photograph of the two leaders ([Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/), [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)), and the 1942 leaflet "Ave Caesar!", which draws Mussolini as Hitler's puppet ([Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/), [Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/)). The US Office of War Information used Mussolini's own quoted words on a red field to alarm American readers ([Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/)).

![Office of War Information poster, 1942: a photograph of Mussolini on red under a quotation about peace](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/what-do-you-say-america-mussolini-1942.jpg)

Explain moreShow less

Each side here used the same tools: personification, epithet, selected evidence and the leader's name. They differed in sponsor and audience: a monarchy's loan offices, a one-party state's slogans on walls, and foreign governments addressing Italians or their own citizens.

## Earlier colonial postcards

![Postcard, 1912: a mural-crowned Italia holds a tricolour before a map joining Italy to Tripolitania](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/tripoli-e-italiana-postcard-1912.jpg)

A commercial postcard of the Italo-Turkish War, "Tripoli è italiana!" (1912), sets a personified nation before a map that joins the two shores ([Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)).

## What the collection does not hold

- **Not here:** the Fascist Ministry of Popular Culture's own poster stock, Italian Social Republic (1943 to 1945) posters, and Italian Communist or Resistance posters of 1943 to 1945.
- The 1924 and 1934 PNF sheets held are two election sheets and a plebiscite photograph, not a complete record of the regime's output.
- Few sponsors are printed on the sheets themselves; where a caption names none, none is claimed here.

Sources and further reading

## Sources

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division and World Digital Library (Italian war-loan posters, 1915 to 1920).

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division and World Digital Library (Italian war-loan posters, 1915 to 1920). Wikimedia Commons scans of L'Illustration (1924, 1935), Il Becco Giallo (1925) and the Collezione Salce. U.S. National Archives (OWI posters). Psywar.org for the Political Warfare Executive items. Each item in the grid carries its own source and rights note. Related pages: [Fascist propaganda](https://propagandaarchive.org/fascist-propaganda/), [Fascist Italy](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/fascist-italy/), [Ministry of Popular Culture](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/fascist-italy-minculpop/).

## Italian propaganda in the collection

Showing 31 of 31 objects. [Filter the whole collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/).

- [Buenos Aires 1910: Esposizioni Internazionali, Partecipazione ufficiale dell'Italia (Buenos Aires 1910: International Expositions, Official Participation of Italy)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/buenos-aires-1910-italian-participation-1910/) (Kingdom of Italy · 1910 · Transfer). Content note: Allegorical exhibition poster with a partly bare-breasted female figure.
- [Tripoli è italiana! (postcard)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/tripoli-e-italiana-postcard-1912/) (Kingdom of Italy · 1912 · Transfer)
- [Gli autori dell'ecatombe Europea davanti alla Civiltà (The authors of the European hecatomb before Civilisation)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gli-autori-ecatombe-europea-ducci-1915/) (Kingdom of Italy · 1915 · Name-calling, Glittering generalities). Content note: Chromolithograph showing corpses on a battlefield, a bloodied sword and burning ruins, with four rulers of the Central Powers shown as the cause; wartime enemy-leader caricature.
- [Sottoscrivete al prestito (Subscribe to the Loan), Italia and the barbarian warrior](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sottoscrivete-al-prestito-capranesi-1917/) (Kingdom of Italy · 1917 · Transfer, Name-calling). Content note: Enemy warrior drawn as a bearded barbarian in a winged helmet, being stabbed by a female national figure.
- [Armi della morte - armi per la vita! Sottoscrivete al prestito della vittoria (Weapons of death, weapons for life! Subscribe to the Victory Loan)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/armi-della-morte-prestito-1918/) (Kingdom of Italy · 1918 · Glittering generalities, Transfer)
- [Finalmente!! (At Last!!), Italia with two kneeling women](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/finalmente-metlicovitz-1918/) (Kingdom of Italy · 1918 · Transfer)
- [Parlano di pace e nascondono il pugnale! (They Talk of Peace and Hide the Dagger!)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/parlano-di-pace-nascondono-il-pugnale-borilli-1918/) (Kingdom of Italy · 1918 · Name-calling, Glittering generalities)
- [...per la Patria i miei occhi! per la Pace il vostro denaro. Prestito Nazionale (For the Fatherland my eyes, for Peace your money)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/per-la-patria-i-miei-occhi-prestito-1918/) (Kingdom of Italy · 1918 · Transfer)
- ['Viennesi!' tricolour leaflet dropped over Vienna in D'Annunzio's flight, 9 August 1918](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/viennesi-volo-su-vienna-leaflet-1918/) (Kingdom of Italy · Aug 9, 1918 · Transfer, Bandwagon)
- [Attenti! il serpente tedesco è preso! (Attention! The German serpent is caught!)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/attenti-veleno-1919/) (Kingdom of Italy · 1919 · Name-calling, Transfer). Content note: Dehumanizing animal metaphor for Germans: a serpent marked with Iron Crosses, blood dripping from its fangs, gripped by a hand.
- [Ozio - Miseria, Lavoro - Ricchezza (Idleness - Misery, Work - Wealth)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ozio-miseria-lavoro-ricchezza-prestito-1920/) (Kingdom of Italy · 1920 · Card stacking)
- [1919 Bolscevismo / 1923 Fascismo: the lira-and-franco scales (Fascist election postcard, 1924)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bolscevismo-fascismo-lira-franco-postcard-1924/) (Fascist Italy · 1924 · Card stacking, Transfer)
- [VI Aprile: Sveglia per le coscienze che dormono. Votate la Lista Nazionale (Fascist election poster, 1924)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/vi-aprile-sveglia-lista-nazionale-1924/) (Fascist Italy · 1924 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [1919 Bolscevismo / 1923 Fascismo: PNF election poster as reproduced in L'Illustration, April 1924](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bolscevismo-fascismo-pnf-illustration-1924/) (Fascist Italy · Apr 5, 1924 · Card stacking, Scapegoating). Content note: Poster images of a ruined house, a grieving woman beside a fallen figure and red-flag marchers, set against a harvest scene.
- [Il Becco Giallo cartoon 'Tombola!' on the Matteotti murder, Rome, 1925](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/becco-giallo-tombola-matteotti-1925/) (Fascist Italy · 1925 · Name-calling)
- [School copybook 'La Marina Italiana (Manovre navali del 1928)' with Mussolini and a printed slogan](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/quaderno-marina-mussolini-manovre-navali-1928/) (Fascist Italy · 1928 · Testimonial, Transfer)
- [l'Unità, Anno VII, N. 1, front page (January 1928): "Resistere alla seconda ondata di riduzione dei salari! SCIOPERATE!"](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/l-unita-sciopero-salari-1928/) (Fascist Italy · Jan 1928 · Plain folks, Name-calling). Content note: Clandestine Communist front page whose strike slogan uses a vulgar word ('A salario di merda, lavoro di merda!'), shown as printed.
- [La Domenica del Corriere, 24 February 1929: 'Uno storico avvenimento' (signing of the Lateran Pacts)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/domenica-del-corriere-patti-lateranensi-1929/) (Fascist Italy · Feb 24, 1929 · Transfer)
- [L'Unione Sarda, 24 March 1929: 'Il voto di oggi, è atto di fede' (plebiscite day front page)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/unione-sarda-plebiscito-front-page-1929/) (Fascist Italy · Mar 24, 1929 · Identity fusion, Glittering generalities)
- [Palazzo Braschi dressed for the 1934 plebiscite: rows of "SI" around the Duce](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/palazzo-braschi-si-1934/) (Fascist Italy · Mar 1934 · Identity fusion, Bandwagon, Repetition and the illusory truth effect, Demagoguery)
- [The tricolour 'SI' ballot of the plebiscite of 25 March 1934: 'Approvate voi la lista dei deputati designati dal Gran Consiglio?'](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/scheda-plebiscito-si-1934/) (Fascist Italy · Mar 25, 1934 · Transfer, Identity fusion)
- ['MUSSOLINI HA SEMPRE RAGIONE' in giant letters on an embankment, as printed in L'Illustration, April 1935](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/mussolini-ha-sempre-ragione-1935/) (Fascist Italy · Apr 8, 1935 · Identity fusion, Cult of personality)
- [Oro alla Patria: handing in gold wedding rings in Milan, 1935](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/oro-alla-patria-milan-1935/) (Fascist Italy · Dec 1935 · Identity fusion, Transfer, Bandwagon)
- [Faded wall slogan 'Molti nemici molto onore' signed Mussolini, Ortygia (Syracuse)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/molti-nemici-molto-onore-siracusa-wall-slogan/) (Fascist Italy · 1936 · Glittering generalities)
- ["Credere Obbedire Combattere": a school group photograph, Mirandola, 1938](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/credere-obbedire-combattere-mirandola-1938/) (Fascist Italy · 1938 · Identity fusion, Glittering generalities)
- [A British Cruiser Ramming an Italian Submarine in the Mediterranean - Back Them Up!](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/back-them-up-cruiser-ramming-submarine-1940/) (United Kingdom · 1940 · Card stacking)
- [Il Popolo d'Italia, 11 June 1940: 'Popolo italiano corri alle armi!' (front page)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/il-popolo-d-italia-corri-alle-armi-1940/) (Fascist Italy · Jun 11, 1940 · Bandwagon, Glittering generalities)
- [Ecco i vostri alleati (Here Are Your Allies): British propaganda booklet for Italy](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ecco-i-vostri-alleati-pwe-italy-1941/) (United Kingdom · 1941 · Name-calling, Transfer). Content note: Wartime leaflet showing Hitler and Mussolini under the labels 'tyrants' and 'neuropath'.
- [Ave Caesar! Morituri te salutant (British leaflet to Italy)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ave-caesar-morituri-te-salutant-pwe-leaflet-1942/) (United Kingdom · 1942 · Name-calling, Fear appeal). Content note: Nazi swastika on the cap of a puppeteer figure, and on a podium, in a wartime leaflet cartoon.
- [What do you say, America? (Mussolini)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/what-do-you-say-america-mussolini-1942/) (United States · 1942 · Fear appeal)
- [Small Figures Assembling a Swastika-Marked Mechanical Giant (untitled)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hitler-mussolini-puppet-masters-1945/) (United States · 1945 · Name-calling, Transfer). Content note: Swastika and caricatured likenesses of enemy leaders, shown as printed.