British "Black Propaganda" Postcard with Robert Ley

Authors

Object ID

2019.2.133

Object Name

Postcard

Date

1943

Files

Content Warning

The Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection consists of images, documents, and artifacts related to the Holocaust. The collection contains materials that depict a number of topics that may be difficult for viewers to engage with, including: antisemitic descriptions, caricatures, and representation of Jewish people; Nazi imagery and ideology; descriptions and images of German ghettos; graphic images of the violence of the Holocaust; and the creation of the State of Israel. For more information, see our policy page.

Description

Postcard with “Reichsleiter Dr. Robert Ley” in bold black print in center of right side with a photo of Ley in uniform, shouting, on left side, marked “(Siehe Umseitig)” in lower right corner.

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:

Two days after Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, Britain declared war on Germany. In one effort to undermine the morale of both German soldiers and civilians, the British Political Warfare Executive (PWE), working with members of the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS), created a Psywar propaganda arts unit. Sefton Delmer of the PWE devised this example of the “Black propaganda” arts, printed in England and often affixed with a forged 3 pfennig Hitler stamp. They were then dropped by the U.S. 8th Air Force over selected targets. Robert Ley, a garrulous liar and alcoholic, head of the German Labor Front and militant antisemite who, not content with merely relocating the Jews but rather advocated exterminating them, is accused in a “secret directive” - actually created by the PWE - of securing large quantities of food for himself and other Nazi officials, while publicly declaring that he and his colleagues used ration cards. “National Socialists know no such thing as diplomatic rations… Every man… has to live on rations,” whether an official or worker. “I myself am a normal consumer and live on them…” These allegations supposedly appeared in the October 12, 1943 edition of Goebbels’ newspaper Angriff. He appears in this earlier photo as the repugnant blowhard that he in fact was.

Dimensions

4 x 5 1/2"

Keywords

Robert Ley, Deutsches Arbeits Front, German Labor Front, Propaganda, Psywar

Subcollection

Propaganda

Recommended Citation

"British "Black Propaganda" Postcard with Robert Ley" (1943). Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection. 2019.2.133.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/bulmash/1508