Award for careless talk
Permalink
https://digital.library.illinois.edu/items/db1544c0-0d92-0135-23f6-0050569601ca-1
Copyright Not Evaluated
Descriptive Information
| Title | Award for careless talk |
| Description | Poster, color, 20 x 26 in., published by the United States Government Printing Office |
| Interpretation | During wartime concerns about national security increase, and World War II was no exception. This poster reminds citizens that sharing any military information such as troop movements, or other details could help the enemy sabotage the war effort. The award depicted in this poster is the Iron Cross, 2nd class. The Iron Cross is probably the most easily recognized German military award. King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia created this award in 1813, during the War of Liberation against Napoleon. In 1939 (after the Nazi party came into power) the symbols on the Iron Cross design were changed from the crown and oak leaves to the Nazi swastika. Tis 2nd class award was given to men and women of all ranks within any branch of the Wehrmacht, Waffen-SS or the auxiliary service organizations. It was meant to reward single acts of combat bravery. The symbol depicted on the ring and the award is the swastika. The swastika dates back 3000 years and has been used by many cultures throughout the world as a symbol of good luck. The word swastika is derived from the Sanskrit "su" meaning "well" and "asti" meaning "being". When Adlof Hitler was in charge of propaganda for the National Socialist Party (the Nazis), in 1920, he realized that the party needed its own distinct insignia, a dramatic one that suggested a sense of power and direction. The swastika was perfect for this purpose, having been used by the Aryan nomads of India which the Nazis theorized were the ancestors of the German people. In Hitler's opus "Mein Kampf" he describes the swastika as a symbol of "...the mission of the struggle for victory of the Aryan man, and, by the same token, the victory of the idea of creative work, which as such always has been and always will be anti-Semitic." (source: Houghton Mifflin edition, 1943, p.497) This once benign symbol of good luck soon became one of the most vilified symbols of hate, violence, and anti-Semitism. |
| Lesson Plans / Themes | World War II |
| Learning Standards | |
| Author or Creator | United States. War Department. Army Service Forces. Adjutant General's Department |
| Other Contributors | Dohanos, Stevan, 1907-1994 [artist] |
| Language | eng |
| Subject / Keywords | |
| Temporal Coverage | 1944 |
| Collection Publisher | Illinois State Library |
| Rights | Copyright Not Evaluated |
| Resource Identifier | ww20031p |
| Date Created | 37202 |
| Collection Title | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community) |
| Collection | Teaching with Digital Content (Cultural Heritage Community) |
Download Options
|
Award for careless talk |