# What Do You Say, America? (1942), Hitler on storm troopers

What do you say, America? is a 1942 poster issued by the Graphics Division of the Office of War Information, numbered OWI-P-2. A cropped photograph of Adolf Hitler in mid-speech sits on a red field under a line attributed to him, "We shall soon have our Storm Troopers in America!" (NAID 513822).

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      What do you say, America? (Hitler)

      What Do You Say, America? (1942), Hitler on storm troopers
      OWI poster P-2 (1942) sets a photograph of Hitler under a line attributed to him about storm troopers in America, then asks the reader to answer. NAID

## Techniques named on the archive record

Fear appeal
      Date1942Made byGraphics Division, Office of War InformationMediumPosterCountryUnited StatesRegimeRoosevelt AdministrationNARANAID 513822; Record Group 44SourceIdentified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they areSourceU.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters , retrieved October 4, 2026SourcePublic domain (U.S. government work) Graphics Division, Office of War Information. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-371A (NAID 513822).
      Object, image, and catalog record from the FRAME archive. Text on this page is CC BY 4.0. Image rights are as the archive records.

      Full record at propagandaarchive.org

  What do you say, America? is a 1942 poster issued by the Graphics Division of the Office of War Information, numbered OWI-P-2. A cropped photograph of Adolf Hitler in mid-speech sits on a red field under a line attributed to him, "We shall soon have our Storm Troopers in America!" (NAID 513822).

## What the sheet prints

The photograph is cropped tight: Hitler's head tipped back, mouth open, caught in the middle of a speech. It is printed on solid red. Above him is a quotation credited to him, and below him a question put to the reader. There is no other picture and no other argument.

“We shall soon have our Storm Troopers in America!”

—HITLER

What do YOU say, AMERICA?

Issued by the Graphics Division, Office of War Information, Washington, D. C. OWI—P–2

Transcription in the FRAME record. Imprint U.S. Government Printing Office: 1942-O-472170. Full record at propagandaarchive.org. NAID 513822, local id 44-PA-371A.

## Who issued it

The Graphics Division of the Office of War Information issued the sheet, with the number P-2, a low number in that series. The FRAME collection holds companion sheets with the same question under photographs of Mussolini and of Admiral Yamamoto. The National Archives keeps this one in Record Group 44.

## The quotation

The poster prints the line with a dash and a name, and nothing more: no date, no speech, no source. The FRAME record transcribes it as the poster gives it and does not trace it. This page cannot say where or whether Hitler said these words, and it does not treat the attribution as established. A reader should know that a government poster presenting an enemy's quotation without a citation is asking to be trusted on that point.

## How to read it

The design does not caricature its subject. It uses a real photograph of the real leader of an enemy state, which is a sharper choice than the ape or devil of other wartime sheets. The threat it describes, a party militia on American streets, is aimed at what Americans had and Germany had lost: a free political life without armed party gangs.

The closing question is the strongest line. It invites an answer instead of dictating one. The answer the poster wants is obvious, but the form, a question to citizens, is the right one for a republic.

See the anti-Nazi propaganda hub and its poster gallery, including This Is Nazi Brutality, which also quotes German words. The Office of War Information index lists the other numbered sheets. The Graphics Division answered to the Office of War Information, and the Roosevelt administration essay explains the limit on that office: it issued posters, and it had no censorship power.

## Sources

- FRAME object record, What do you say, America? (Hitler), 1942. Graphics Division, Office of War Information. Rights as recorded: public domain (U.S. government work).

- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, 44-PA-371A, NAID 513822, retrieved by the archive 4 October 2026.

Canonical: https://americanpropaganda.org/collection/what-do-you-say-america-hitler-1942/