If These Nazi War Workers Dared Speak, a ThinkAmerican sheet that writes their lines

A ThinkAmerican Institute poster, sheet No. 168, copyrighted by Kelly-Read and Co. of Rochester and catalogued at 1941. A photograph credited to Interphoto and captioned as taken secretly shows workers in a Nazi war plant filling shell casings, under words the poster says they would speak if they dared (NAID 514582).

The photograph and its caption

The picture is the evidence the sheet offers. The FRAME record describes workers filling shell casings, and a printed caption claims how it was obtained. A credit line reads Interphoto. The message follows in short lines.

THIS PHOTO, TAKEN SECRETLY, SHOWS WORKERS IN A NAZI WAR PLANT

INTERPHOTO

If these Nazi war

workers dared speak,

they'd say-"Americans,

protect your system of

individual freedom-

Dictatorship means

slavery-not security."

THINKAMERICAN INSTITUTE

THINKAMERICAN

REG. U.S. PAT. OFF.

No. 168-COPYRIGHT,-KELLY-READ & CO., ROCHESTER, N.Y.

603

Words in their mouths

The poster is candid about one thing: the workers cannot speak, so it speaks for them. The quotation marks frame a sentence no one in the picture said. The FRAME catalog tags it as testimonial and glittering generalities. The testimonial is invented, and "individual freedom" and "slavery" are large words with no figures or details attached.

The claim underneath is not foolish. A dictatorship that controls where people work and what they may say does trade liberty for promised security, and a worker in such a state would have good reason to keep quiet. The sheet makes that point by assertion instead of evidence. The caption's claim that the photo was taken in secret is also unverified on the record; the archive reports it as the poster's own caption.

Who printed it

ThinkAmerican was a trademarked series from Kelly-Read and Co. of Rochester, New York, and this sheet carries its number, 168. The catalog types the issuer as a corporation and gives the purpose as "Persuade or win support." No federal office appears on it. The archive's rights line records it as a public-domain U.S. government work.

Two other sheets from the same Rochester series have pages here: a pay-check poster comparing wages under dictatorship, and Our Enemies' Orders to Their Spies, which puts spy orders in the mouths of three dictators.