Source Collection: World War II

Source Collection: World War II

Compiled and annotated by Eman M. Elshaikh, additional edits by Terry Haley
This collection explores how World War II affected the populations in the Allied and Axis power countries. We will glimpse some of the destruction and terror of war through photographs and firsthand testimony, as well as through the cultural aspects of war, like propaganda, artwork, cartoons, and political essays.

Cookie Policy

Our website uses cookies to understand content and feature usage to drive site improvements over time. To learn more, review our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Introduction to this collection

This collection explores how World War II affected the populations in the Allied and Axis power countries. We will glimpse some of the destruction and terror of war through photographs and firsthand testimony, as well as through the cultural aspects of war, like propaganda, artwork, cartoons, and political essays.

Guiding question to think about as you read the documents: What were the changes and continuities in how governments waged war over the period from 1914 to 1945?

WHP Primary Source Punctuation Key

When you read through these primary source collections, you might notice some unusual punctuation like this: . . . and [ ] and ( ). Use the table below to help you understand what this punctuation means.

Punctuation What it means
ELLIPSES
words words
Something has been removed from the quoted sentences by an editor.
BRACKETS
[word] or word[s]
Something has been added or changed by an editor. These edits are to clarify or help readers.
PARENTHESES
(words)
The original author of the primary source wanted to clarify, add more detail, or make an additional comment in parentheses.

Contents

Source 1 – Wartime propaganda from Axis countries, 1937–1944 (0:45)

Source 2 – Wartime propaganda and recruitment posters from Allied countries, 1940–1943 (4:25)

Source 3 – The Doctrine of Fascism, 1932 (9:00)

Source 4 – Guernica, 1937 (13:20)

Source 5 – Photographs during and after air raids, 1940–1945 (14:45)

Source 6 – Yoshito Matsushige’s Account of the Hiroshima Bombing, 1945 (17:15)

Source 7 – Any Bonds Today?, 1942 (21:20)

Screenshot pointing to the "Listen to audio" button.This document is also available as an audio file. Click Listen to audio button to access a reading of the article.

Timestamps are in the source title. To locate a specific source in the audio file:

  1. Click the Download files button.
  2. Choose the Audio File option then the Download button. The file opens in a browser window.
  3. Use the controls in the playback bar to locate the specific source.Screenshot of the audio playback bar.

Source 1 – Wartime propaganda from Axis countries, 1937–1944 (0:45)

Title
Various wartime propaganda 1937–1944 (Axis Countries)
Date and location
1937–1944, Various nations
Source type
Primary source – posters
Author
Various
Description
Individual descriptions can be found next to each of the six posters that make up this source. Note that these are all from “Axis power” countries, such as Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, and Japan. Please note that only the images—not the descriptions, apart from the translations of text on the posters—are primary sources.
Key vocabulary
compulsory
propaganda

Bolshevism
samurai

Guiding question

What were the changes and continuities in how governments waged war over the period from 1914 to 1945?

Excerpt

“’They give blood, give your work to save Europe from Bolshevism’ German and Vichy France’s propaganda poster encouraging the population to participate in the STO (Compulsory Work Service), 1942, Private collection” (Photo by Leemage/Corbis via Getty Images) https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/they-give-blood-give-your-work-to-save-europe-from-news-photo/587489232

And You?
“A Dutch poster from World War II, depicting a WA man with the words ‘In dienst van ons volk, en gij? Wordt WA man’ (‘In the service of our people, and you? Become a WA man’), circa 1943. The WA or Weerbaarheidsafdeling were the paramilitary wing of the Dutch Nazi party NSB, who worked in collaboration with the Germans to arrest Jews and Resistance members. Poster by Lou Manche.” (Photo by Galerie Bilderwelt/Getty Images) https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/dutch-poster-from-world-war-ii-depicting-a-wa-man-with-the-news- photo/84300779

“’The three great leaders defenders of peace and civilization’ Propaganda postcard, Italy, Rome 1937” (Photo by Fototeca Gilardi/ Getty Images). https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/nationalism-fascism-nazism-mussolini-hitler-franco-news-photo/691237257

“An Italian poster from World War II depicts the Statue of Liberty removing her mask to reveal a grinning skull, as she presides over the destruction, 1944. The caption reads ‘Ecco i liberatori!’ (‘Here are the liberators!’).” (Photo by Galerie Bilderwelt/Getty Images) https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/an-italian-poster-from-world-war-ii-depicts-the-statue-of-news-photo/84358247

“Japanese samurai sinking the American fleet at Pearl Harbor (7 December 1941), poster by Gino Boccasile (1901–1952), Italy, 20th century.” (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images) https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/japanese-samurai-sinking-the-american-fleet-at-pearl-harbor-news-photo/182132898

Japanese anti-British propaganda leaflet air dropped into Assam, India, 1944. “It is written in Hindi and Bengali, and titled ‘Glorious Freedom. Revenge for our blood-bathed history’. The leaflet illustrates an Indian pointing dramatically to the viewer with the shadow of death and decay in the background. The text … makes reference of the Battle of Plassey (1757), the Indian Mutiny (1857–1859), World War One (1914–1918) and the Amritsar Massacre (1919).” (Photo courtesy of National Army Museum, UK) https://collection.nam.ac.uk/detail.php?acc=2000-06-159-1

Source 2 – Wartime propaganda and recruitment posters from Allied countries, 1940–1943 (4:25)

Title
Various wartime propaganda 1940–1943 (Allied countries)
Date and location
1940–1943, Various nations
Source type
Primary source – posters
Author
Various
Description
These propaganda posters from the Allied countries were designed to promote support for the Allied powers and opposition to the Axis powers during the Second World War. Notice the style of art and messaging in these government-produced images. Individual descriptions are provided with each image. Please note that only the images—not the descriptions, apart from the translations of text on the posters—are primary sources.
Key vocabulary
salvage

foreground

Guiding question

What were the changes and continuities in how governments waged war over the period from 1914 to 1945?

Excerpt

This 1941 “war poster is typical of those which are plastered all over Moscow as the Germans advance on the Soviet capital.” The text reads: “Kill the Fascist Reptile.” The artist Alexei Kokorekin created numerous propaganda posters for the Soviet Union and the Allies. (Photo by Bettmann/Getty Images) https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/this-savage-war-poster-is-typical-of-those-which-are-news-photo/514686516

This American propaganda poster from 1942 features a photo of an “Ethiopian soldier blowing a bugle. … Produced to help Americans identify allied soldiers.” (Image courtesy of United States Government Printing Office) GPO Jacket No. 455914. 1942-O https://digitalcollections.hclib.org/digital/collection/p17208coll3/id/574/ No copyright – produced by government office

“’We Will Beat the Enemy with our Bolshevik Harvest Gathering.’ Found in the Collection of Russian State Library, Moscow.” A. G. Sittaro 1941. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images) https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/we-will-beat-the-enemy-with-our-bolshevik-harvest-gathering-news-photo/905608252

“Just a good afternoon’s work!” Artist unknown, Post-1941
In this cartoon, a female part-time war worker strikes “Hitler in the face, with the slogan: ‘Just a good afternoon’s work!’ The catalogue entry adds: ‘part-time jobs now open in local war factories’. … The government went some way towards trying to accommodate women in their joint roles, pioneering the use of nurseries, and using schemes whereby two married women could job-share, each putting in a half shift.” (Image courtesy of The National Archives, UK) Catalogue ref: INF 3/400 https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20180105014051/http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/theartofwar/prop/production_salvage/INF3_0400.htm (Crown License - Permission to use for education purposes)

This American propaganda poster from 1943 features a woman working at an aircraft factory. The poster tries to get women to take on jobs left vacant by men fighting in the war, and lists some of the areas where there is more need, such as farm worker, bus driving, and elevator operation. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images) https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/world-war-ii-1939-1945-the-more-women-at-work-the-sooner-we-news-photo/113492800?adppopup=true

“Together” by William Little, August 1941
“The poster depicts a number of uniformed Commonwealth servicemen marching under a flying Union Jack flag, with the slogan ‘Together’. It was part of a series of propaganda “posters designed to demonstrate strength in unity. The image was passed for publication on 22 August 1941.” (Image courtesy of The National Archives, UK) Catalogue ref: INF 3/400 https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20100604224546/http:/www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/theartofwar/prop/allied_unity/INF3_0318.htm Crown License - Permission to use for education purposes)

“African artillery in action” by Roland Davies, date unknown
“An anti-Japanese poster, depicting troops of the African artillery in action. The main slogan is in Kiswahili: ‘Askari wetu washinda wajapani’, which translates as ‘Our soldiers beat the Japanese’. This poster is interesting in that it is an appeal to join the armed forces. More usually propaganda aimed at Africa was related to war production rather than front line roles.” (Image courtesy of The National Archives, UK) Catalogue ref: INF 3/394 https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20100604224556/http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/theartofwar/prop/allied_unity/INF3_0394.htm (Crown License - Permission to use for education purposes)

“A US poster showing a two-headed German/Japanese monster tearing the Statue of Liberty apart, while in the foreground a hand holds a wrench with the word ‘Production’ on the handle, 1943.
Beneath are the words ‘Stop this monster that stops at nothing... Produce to the limit! This is YOUR war!’ Poster by Bert Yates.” (Photo by Galerie Bilderwelt/Getty Images) https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/world-war-ii-poster-showing-a-two-headed-german-japanese-news-photo/84300828

Source 3 – The Doctrine of Fascism, 1932 (9:00)

Title
The Doctrine of Fascism
Date and location
1932, Italy
Source type
Primary source – essay
Author
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (1883–1945)
Giovanni Gentile (1875–1944)
Description
In 1932 the Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini and the Italian philosopher Giovanni Gentile published an entry for the Italian Encyclopedia on the definition of fascism. The excerpt below, likely authored primarily by Gentile, outlines the political philosophy of fascism.
Key vocabulary
perpetual
repudiates
doctrine
pacifism
renunciation
ideologies

extrinsic
suffrage
manifestation
vitality
decadence
severity

Guiding question

What were the changes and continuities in how governments waged war over the period from 1914 to 1945?

Excerpt

Above all, Fascism … believes neither in the possibility nor in the utility of perpetual peace. It thus repudiates the doctrine of Pacifism—born of a renunciation of the struggle and an act of cowardice in the face of sacrifice. War alone brings up to its highest tension all human energies and puts the stamp of nobility upon the peoples who have courage to meet it. …
… Fascism [is] the precise negation of … Marxian Socialism: … according to which the history of human civilizations can be explained only as the struggle of interest between the different social groups and as arising out of change in the means and instruments of production. … Fascism believes, now and always, in holiness and in heroism, that is in acts in which no economic motive—remote or immediate—plays a part. … there is also denied the … “class struggle” which is the natural product of this economic conception of history, and above all it is denied that the class struggle can be the primary agent of social changes. …
After Socialism, Fascism attacks the whole complex [system] of democratic ideologies and rejects them … Fascism denies that the majority, through the mere fact of being a majority, can rule human societies; it denies that this majority can govern by means of a periodical consultation; it affirms the … inequality of men, who cannot be levelled by such a mechanical and extrinsic fact as universal suffrage. …
If it is admitted that the nineteenth century has been the century of Socialism, Liberalism and Democracy, it does not follow that the twentieth century must also be the century of Liberalism, Socialism and Democracy. Political doctrines pass; peoples remain. It is to be expected that this century may be that of authority … a Fascist century. …
The keystone of Fascist doctrine is the conception of the State, … For Fascism the State is as an absolute before which individuals and groups are relative. …
… For Fascism the tendency to Empire, that is to say, to the expansion of nations, is a manifestation of vitality; its opposite, staying at home, is a sign of decadence … Fascism is the doctrine that is most fitted to represent the aims, the states of mind, of a people, like the Italian people, rising again after many centuries of abandonment or slavery to foreigners. But Empire calls for discipline, co-ordination of forces, duty and sacrifice; this explains many aspects of the practical working of the regime and the direction of many of the forces of the State and the necessary severity shown to those who would wish to oppose this … If every age has its own doctrine, it is apparent … that the doctrine of the present age is Fascism.

Citation

Mussolini, Benito. “The Doctrine of Fascism.” In The Social and Political Doctrines of Contemporary Europe, edited by Michael Oakeshott, 164-179. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1945.

Source 4 – Guernica, 1937 (13:20)

Title
Guernica
Date and location
Spain, 1937
Source type
Primary source – painting
Author
Pablo Ruiz Picasso (1881–1973)
Description
By 1937, Picasso had already been a renown modern artist for several decades. In that year, he expressed his anger and opposition in his painting called Guernica, which millions of visitors at the Paris World’s Fair observed. The panting is eleven feet tall and twenty-five feet wide and embraces the viewer. In 1936, a civil war began in Spain, with the democratic Republican government on one side and General Francisco Franco’s forces on the other. Picasso’s painting responded to the events of April 27, 1937, when Hitler’s German air force bombed the village of Guernica in northern Spain in support of Franco’s effort to overthrow the Republican government.

Guiding question

What were the changes and continuities in how governments waged war over the period from 1914 to 1945?

Excerpt

Citation

“Guernica, perhaps the most famous painting by Pablo Picasso, being hung in the Municipal Museum in Amsterdam for an exhibition, 12th July 1956.” (Photo by Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/guernica-perhaps-the-most-famous-painting-by-pablo-picasso-news-photo/52061140?adppopup=true

Source 5 – Photographs during and after air raids, 1940–1945 (14:45)

Title
Multiple titles
Date and location
1940–1945, London, Coventry, Milan, Tokyo, and Dresden
Source type
Primary source – photographs
Author
unknown/multiple authors
Description
During the Second World War, air raids were a common offensive tactic. Below are photographs taken during and after the air raids at multiple locations, depicting the damage and terror they caused.

Guiding question

What were the changes and continuities in how governments waged war over the period from 1914 to 1945?

Excerpt

“London, England: Weary London residents are shown catching up on sleep in the comparative safety of a tube [subway] station. [The trains were] taken out of service and [this space] converted into an air raid shelter. Trucks as well as the platform are used.” (Photo by Bettmann/Getty Images) https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/weary-london-are-shown-catching-up-on-sleep-in-the- news-photo/514686398?adppopup=true

“November 1940: The ruins of Coventry Cathedral in Coventry, United Kingdom, after the night Blitz on Coventry.” (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images) https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/ news-photo/the-ruins-of-coventry-cathedral-after-the-night-blitz- on-news-photo/3312332

“Piazza San Carlo after the Allied Forces air raid. Milan, August 1943.” (Photo by Mondadori via Getty Images) https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/piazza-san-carlo-after-the-allied-forces-air-raid-milan-news- photo/141561832?adppopup=true

“Broken lathes [machines for shaping wood] and other industrial machinery in the wreckage of a home workshop destroyed in American air-raids on Tokyo, September 1945.” (Photo by Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/broken-lathes-and-other-industrial-machinery-in-the-news-photo/148793775?adppopup=true

“13th March 1946: People getting on trams in the midst of the ruins left by an Allied air raid on Johannstrasse, Dresden, in the Soviet zone of Germany after the Second World War.” (Photo by Fred Ramage/Keystone Features/Getty Images) https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-getting-on-trams-in-the-midst-of-the-ruins-left-by-news-photo/3348955

Citation

Citations included alongside individual photos.

Source 6 – Yoshito Matsushige’s Account of the Hiroshima Bombing, 1945 (17:15)

Title
Yoshito Matsushige’s Account of the Hiroshima Bombing
Date and location
1945, Japan
Source type
Primary source – oral history
Author
Yoshito Matsushige (1913–2005)
Description
Matsushige was a Japanese photojournalist who survived the atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima of 1945. He took photographs on the day of the attack, of which only a handful were developed and survive. He describes scenes he couldn’t bear to photograph in his account, which is excerpted below.
Key vocabulary
debris
mobilized

duly
hypocenter

Guiding question

What were the changes and continuities in how governments waged war over the period from 1914 to 1945?

Excerpt

I had finished breakfast and was getting ready to go to the newspaper when it happened. There was a flash from the indoor wires as if lightning had struck. I didn’t hear any sound, how shall I say, the world around me turned bright white. And I was momentarily blinded … Immediately after that, the blast came. I was bare from the waist up, and the blast was so intense, it felt like hundreds of needles were stabbing me all at once. The blast grew large holes in the walls of the first and second floor. … Near the Miyuki Bridge, there was a police box. Most of the victims who had gathered there were junior high school girls from the Hiroshima Girls Business School and the Hiroshima Junior High School No.1. They had been mobilized to evacuate buildings and were outside when the bomb fell. Having been directly exposed to the heat rays, they were covered with blisters, the size of balls, on their backs, their faces, their shoulders and their arms. The blisters were starting to burst open and their skin hung down like rugs. Some of the children even have burns on the soles of their feet. They’d lost their shoes and run barefoot through the burning fire.
When I saw this, I thought I would take a picture and I picked up my camera. But I couldn’t push the shutter because the sight was so pathetic. Even though I too was a victim of the same bomb, I only had minor injuries from glass fragments, whereas these people were dying. It was such a cruel sight that I couldn’t bring myself to press the shutter. Perhaps I hesitated there for about 20 minutes, but I finally summoned up the courage to take one picture. …
Then, I saw a burnt streetcar which had just turned the corner at Kamiya-cho. There were passengers still in the car. I put my foot onto the steps of the car and I looked inside. There were perhaps 15 or 16 people in front of the car. They laid dead one on top of another. Kamiya-cho was very close to the hypocenter, about 200 meters away. The passengers had stripped them of all their clothes. … I stepped down to take a picture and I put my hand on my camera. But I felt so sorry for these dead and naked people whose photo would be left to posterity that I couldn’t take the shot. …
… I don’t pride myself on it, but it’s a small consolation that I was able to take at least five pictures. During the war, air-raids took place practically every night. And after the war began, there were many food shortages. Those of us who experienced all these hardships, we hope that such suffering will never be experienced again by our children and our grandchildren. Not only our children and grandchildren, but all future generations should not have to go through this tragedy. That is why I want young people to listen to our testimonies and to choose the right path, the path which leads to peace.

Citation

Matsushige, Yoshito. “Account of the Hiroshima Bombing.” Atomic Heritage Foundation and the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History. https://www.atomicheritage.org/key-documents/yoshito-matsushiges-account-hiroshima-bombing

Notes or additional materials

Students can view Matsushige’s photos here https://atomicphotographers.com/photographers/yoshito-matsushige/

Source 7 – Any Bonds Today?, 1942 (21:20)

Title
Any Bonds Today?
Date and location
1942, United States
Source type
Primary source – animated song
Author
Irving Berlin (1888–1989)
Description
Irving Berlin was a famous American songwriter. He wrote a wide variety of popular songs for radio and for musical theater, and many were patriotic. When the treasury secretary requested a song to inspire people to buy war bonds, Berlin came up with “Any Bonds Today?”. It was produced as a three-minute animated film, staring the beloved American cartoon character, Bugs Bunny, along with his frequent co-stars Elmer Fudd and Porky Pig. The proceeds went to the United States Treasury Department. This song was part of the National Defense Savings Bond Campaign, but it came in the form of this short animated musical film. It was very popular.

Guiding question

What were the changes and continuities in how governments waged war over the period from 1914 to 1945?

Excerpt

Bugs Bunny: The tall man with the high hat and the whiskers on his chin1
will soon be knocking at your door, and you ought to be in!
The tall man with the high hat will be coming down your way.
Get your savings out when you hear him shout, “Any bonds today?”
Come on and get ’em folks, come on, step right up and get ’em.
Any bonds today?
Bonds of freedom, that’s what I’m selling
Any bonds today?
Scrape up the most you can!
Here comes the freedom man,
asking you to buy a share of freedom today
Naw, many stamps today!
Give, kiddies!
We’ll be blessed, we all invest in the U.S.A.!
Sammy, my uncle Sammy!
Elmer Fudd: Here comes the freedom man!
Porky Pig: Can’t make tomorrow’s plan!
Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd and Porky Pig: Not unless you buy a share of freedom today
Any stamps? Any bonds today?

Citation

Berlin, Irving, songwriter. Any Bonds Today?. Leon Schlesinger Studies and the US Department of Treasury, 1942. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcR8-sal73g

Notes or additional materials

Students can watch this cartoon on YouTube along with other World War II propaganda cartoons, but please note that the cartoon features offensive racial imagery, likely mimicking the entertainer Al Jolson’s frequent use of black stereotypes in his songs.


1 Refers to Uncle Sam

Eman M. Elshaikh

Eman M. Elshaikh is a writer, researcher, and teacher who has taught K-12 and undergraduates in the United States and in the Middle East and written for many different audiences. She teaches writing at the University of Chicago, where she also completed her master’s in social sciences and is currently pursuing her PhD. She was previously a World History Fellow at Khan Academy, where she worked closely with the College Board to develop curriculum for AP World History.

Image credits

Creative Commons This work is licensed under CC BY 4.0 except for the following:

Cover: A Flying-bomb Over Tower Bridge, Tower Bridge standing centre of composition with the red streak of a flying bomb travelling across the sky above it, tracked by searchlights, circa 1944. © Frederick T W Cook/ Imperial War Museums via Getty Images.