"They Can Take Only Our Bodies" is a Dutch war relief poster from the Queen Wilhelmina Fund, Inc., signed Ronay. A blindfolded man in traditional Dutch dress stands against a brick wall, with the promise "Holland will rise again." The archive dates it 1939 (44-PF-25).
The man at the wall
The figure wears a blindfold and the traditional dress of the Netherlands, and he stands with his back to a brick wall. The archive reads the scene as an execution. The sheet itself does not name a place, a date, an occupier, or a victim.
"They can take only our bodies"..
HOLLAND WILL RISE AGAIN
GIVE
for DUTCH WAR RELIEF
The QUEEN WILHELMINA FUND, Inc.
[signature:] RONAY
A quotation with no speaker
The opening line sits inside quotation marks, but nothing on the sheet says who said it. The reader is meant to hear it from the blindfolded man. That is a common poster device, and it should be read as one: a voice the sheet supplies, not a statement the record traces to anyone.
The FRAME catalog tags fear appeal and glittering generalities. The fear is the wall and the blindfold. The generality is the promise that Holland will rise again, a hope stated as a certainty with no plan behind it. Then comes the request, one word on its own line: give. The catalog gives the purpose as "Fundraise" and the audience as "Domestic public."
Who asked
The sponsor is an incorporated fund bearing Queen Wilhelmina's name, and the artist signed with one name, Ronay. The record gives no first name and no print run, and this page adds none. Like the Greek War Relief Association's appeal in the same National Archives series, it asked Americans for voluntary gifts to a foreign cause and printed the name of the body asking.
The archive files the item under the Roosevelt administration, though no federal office appears on the sheet. The Roosevelt administration essay makes the general point: not every item in the period's file was a government product. For another sheet from a group in America speaking for a European country at war, see France Forever's poster.
Sources
- FRAME object record, "They Can Take Only Our Bodies" - Holland Will Rise Again, Give for Dutch War Relief, dated 1939. Queen Wilhelmina Fund, Inc.; artist Ronay.
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Foreign Posters, 44-PF-25, retrieved by the archive 3 October 2026. Rights as recorded: held by NARA, unrestricted; hosted by owner decision.
