Libertad de Palabra (1942), Alexey Brodovitch's cracked swastika

Libertad de Palabra is a 1942 Spanish-language poster by Alexey Brodovitch, published by the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs in Washington. A black swastika built from slabs cracks apart, with flame and smoke rising from one arm, over a sunset gradient (NAID 44266080).

What the sheet prints

Brodovitch built his swastika from black slabs, in the archive's description, cracked and breaking apart, with a flame and smoke rising from one arm. Behind it is a sunset gradient. The text is in Spanish and short.

Alexey Brodovitch 1942.

libertad

de palabra

UNA DE LAS CUATRO LIBERTADES

POR LAS QUE LUCHAN LOS ALIADOS

Publicado por El Coordinador de Asuntos Interamericanos, Washington, E.U.A.

The archive's English version, which it labels a machine translation not verified by a fluent reader, reads: "freedom of speech / ONE OF THE FOUR FREEDOMS FOR WHICH THE ALLIES ARE FIGHTING / Published by the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, Washington, U.S.A."

Who made it

The sheet carries its own credit line. It was published by the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, a federal office in Washington, and it is signed and dated by Alexey Brodovitch. In the archive's fields, the audience is a foreign public and the purpose is persuading or winning support. The National Archives holds it in Record Group 44 with the World War II foreign posters. The record does not say in which countries it was posted or how many were printed.

How to read it

The archive tags glittering generalities. "Freedom of speech" is set large over the breaking swastika, and the line beneath names it one of the four freedoms the Allies fight for. The word carries the cause, and the poster does not define it.

The idea is a good one to export. Speech that needs no permission from the state is the American freedom most worth showing a neighbor, and the Office of War Information's The Nazis Burned These Books sets out the other side of the contrast. The test this sheet sets for its publisher is the one the Rockwell Freedom of Speech page applies at home: the picture is the promise, and a government that sells free speech abroad is held to it in its own country.

The Four Freedoms hub covers the Rockwell set and the Office of War Information sheets. The anti-Nazi propaganda hub collects sheets aimed at the Nazi state.