Our last hope: Hitler Pro Hitler poster featuring a crowd of forlorn people

Hans Schweitzer (1901-1980) was born in Berlin, and joined the Nazi party in 1926. As a member of the party, Schweitzer created cartoons, caricatures, and political posters under the penname, Mjölnir. He worked for several Nazi newspapers, including the Völkischer Beobachter (The People’s Observer) and a paper published by early Nazi leaders Gregor and Otto Strasser. With his artistic talents, Schweitzer advanced through the party. He was appointed as an honorary member of the SS and became friends with Joseph Goebbels, Reich Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. Later, Schweitzer illustrated several books for Goebbels, including Die Verfluchten Hakenkreuzen, published in 1930. Throughout the 1930s, Schweitzer created images for Nazi antisemitic, political, and election posters. He was also a cartoonist for the paper Der Angriff (The Attack), publish by Goebbels, and illustrated the book, Kampf um Berlin (Fight for Berlin). In 1935, he was appointed as Representative for Artistic Design and worked in conjunction with the Ministry of Propaganda for the creation of exhibitions, erection of monuments, and the development of insignia and national symbols. Later, he worked with a commission to decide how to utilize artwork stolen from Nazi victims. Schweitzer was arrested by American authorities in 1947 and fined 500 deutsche marks for his actions during the Holocaust. In 1955, he had his Nazi record expunged and was able to work as an illustrator and teacher.

Friedrich Josef Rehse was born on March 23, 1870, in Münster, Germany. He worked as a photographer until the outbreak of World War I, when he began collecting printed materials such as pamphlets, maps, stamps, postcards, letters, photographs and posters. Rehse continued to add to his collection throughout the 1920’s, becoming friendly with Adolf Hitler and other National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazi Party or NSDAP) leadership and acquiring many pieces of their early propaganda work. In 1929, the NSDAP, which up to that point had saved little of their early works, purchased the entire collection from Rehse for 80,000 Reichsmarks and appointed him archivist of the collection. The collection was kept in the office of the NSDAP in the Munich Schellingstrasse, and in 1932 was named the "FJM Rehse Archive for Contemporary History and Journalism Munich.” In 1935, the collection was moved to the north wing of the Munich Residence, which was turned into a museum and renamed the “FJM Rehse Archive and Museum of Contemporary History Munich." The collection continued to grow both through legitimate acquisitions and through Nazi plunder until the end of the war when Munich was liberated by American troops in 1945. The collection was confiscated, and the unlawfully acquired pieces were returned to their rightful owners. The remainder of the collection, along with the files of the NSDAP main archive, were taken to the Library of Congress in Washington DC. Friedrich Rehse, aged 81, died on January 14, 1952 in Munich, Germany. Much of the confiscated collection was returned to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1963 as part of a "book repatriation" by the United States.

The poster was acquired by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1990.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection