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Prepared from the source scan: surroundings removed and the sheet levelled where required. The source record remains available below.
The Posters That Went to War · The Home Front
We French Workers Warn You: Defeat Means Slavery, Starvation, Death
Ben Shahn (1898-1969) · War Production Drive Headquarters, War Production Board, Washington, 1941–1945
Format
Archival pigment giclée on museum-grade matte art paper, color-managed to the source scan — the flat inks and stone grain intact. The 40×60 is the room-changer.
Size
$39.00
What it is
A poster Ben Shahn made for War Production Drive Headquarters of the War Production Board in Washington, held by the National Archives as 44-PA-246 and dated between 1941 and 1945.
Why it matters
The War Production Board ran its drive to keep American plants at full output, and here the warning comes from workers in occupied France. Shahn, born in the Russian Empire and trained as a lithographer, is known for social-realist work and for The Shape of Content.
What to notice
The sentence is spoken in the first person plural, we French workers, and ends on three nouns that climb to death.
Occupied France, speaking across the Atlantic.
Provenance
- School
- The Second World War Poster (United States and the world)
- Designer
- Ben Shahn (1898-1969)
- Campaign
- Production
- Format
- Political poster
- Poster published
- War Production Drive Headquarters, War Production Board, Washington, 1941–1945
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, World War II Posters series (NAID 513688, local id 44-PA-246), NARA scan via DPLA and Wikimedia Commons · NARA NAID 513688 · 44-PA-246
Rights: CLEAR. Public domain — U.S. government work (the WPA Federal Art Project, the wartime agencies), any year. Gated by the poster’s own publication year. Cleared by registry on 2026-11-02. National Archives catalogue re-read 2026-11-02 (NAID 513688, 44-PA-246): use restriction Unrestricted, access Unrestricted.
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