The Liberators: The Liberation by the Criminal Army! Poster issued by the Gestapo to discredit executed French resistance members
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 19.290 inches (48.997 cm) | Width: 12.200 inches (30.988 cm) | Depth: 31.610 inches (80.289 cm)
Archival History
The poster was acquired by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1992.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection
Scope and Content
Political poster of the French resistance group Manouchian network. In February 1944, this poster appeared all over France. The Gestapo executed these men. Their leader was an Armenian gentleman named Missak Manouchian. The poster was meant to make an example of these ten partisans whose faces appear on this fiche. According to the book "Jewish Resistance in France" by Amy Latour, not long after the appearance of the poster, people began to deface the fiche by writing across the face "THEY DIED FOR FRANCE."
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Red and black poster with black and white photographs of ten men. caption at top of poster: "DES LIBERATEURS?..." [The liberators?]. Underneath this sentence, ten black and white photographs of men, their faces in rondos, caption beneath each face. Ten rondos form upside down triangle and captions read, clockwise, 1) "GRZYWACZ Juif Polonais 2 attentats" 2) "ELEK Juif Hongrois 8 deraillements" 3) "WASJBROT Juif Polonais 1 attentat 3 deraillements" 4) "WITCHITZ Juif Hongrois 17 attentats" 5) "FINGERWEIG Jiuf Polonais 3 attentats 5 deraillements" 6) "FONTANOT communiste Italien 12 attentats" 7) "RAYMAN Juif Polonais 13 attentats" 8) "[caption on top of photograph] MANOUCHIAN Armenian chef du bande 56 attentats 150 morts 600 blesses" 9) "ALFONSO Espagnol rouge 7 attentats" 10) "BOCZOV Juif Hongrois chef derailleur 20 attentats." Across bottom of poster are the words "LA LIBERATION PAR L'ARMEE DU CRIME! [The liberation by the Criminal Army] bottom half of poster is montage of black and white photographs: three damaged train cars, one shot of armaments, one shot that appears to be a corpse and a final image of a wounded torso.
Genre
- Posters
- Object