Der Feind, The Fiend

This public information poster was printed in Berlin in 1940. The designer was Sander-Herwig. Note the RAF roundel on the wing of the aircraft, and the bomb in the skeleton’s hand.

The poster is a forewarning of the later demonisation of the RAF bomber crews as terrorflieger, ‘the terror fliers’, which was used as justification for violence against them if they were shot down. In March 1944, the propaganda chief, Josef Goebbels, openly extolled the German people to take the law into their own hands if they caught any Allied aircrew.

The Enemy Sees Your Lights. Lights out!

The Wolfsonian Digital Catalog, Accession number: XX1990.2765