This is the enemy...

This anti-Nazi poster was the winning design in the Artist for Victory Campaign held at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, in 1942. The aim of the competition (sponsored by the Council for Democracy, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York) was to generate persuasive images for war propaganda. Artists were given a choice of eight themes and twenty slogans to use in their designs; over two thousand entries were submitted. Karl Koehler and Victor Ancona combined their efforts and submitted several entries, including their prize-winning poster 'This is the Enemy'.

This design was entered in the category ‘Nature of the enemy’ and is a chilling example of propaganda that demonizes the enemy in order to win support for the war effort. The exhibition was held at a time when President Roosevelt was trying to fight powerful anti-war messages of media figures such as Randolph Hearst and encouraging portrayals of the Axis powers ‘as gangsters, bandits and criminals’.