Socialism against Bolshevism French collaborationist anti-Bolshevist propaganda poster

French propaganda poster, published and distributed by the Centre d'études antibolcheviques (CEA, Center for anti-Bolshevik Studies) and the Office de répartition de l’affichage (ORAFF, Display Distribution Office) in German-occupied France between 1942 and 1944. The poster shows an image of two men fighting each other. One man, a physical manifestation of communist Bolsheviks, is bathed in red, a color traditionally associated with communism. The man also has stereotypically antisemitic Jewish features; a large, hooked nose, full lips, and pointed ears, which associate Jews with communists, both considered enemies by the Nazis. He wields a chain, a symbol of oppression, and attempts to wrap his opponent in it. The opponent is a shirtless man symbolizing Germany, struggling against communist Bolshevik subjugation. He (Germany) fights, according to the French caption, “for a free Europe.” In September 1939, following the German invasion of Poland, France and Britain declared war on Germany. In May 1940, Germany invaded and quickly overwhelmed French forces. In June, Marshal Henri Phillippe Petain signed an armistice agreement, granting Germany control of northern and western France, including Paris. After the armistice and occupation, German authorities and French collaborators began releasing propaganda to fuel resentment among the French public toward the Nazi’s enemies. The CEA was a French collaborationist organization created in 1942 to distribute propaganda vilifying the French Resistance, Communists, the British, and Jews. ORAFF was created by German authorities in 1941 to control and censor posters that did not comply with Nazi policy, and publicly display propaganda posters that conformed to Nazi ideals.