Size: 5.5 x 8.5 inches

Rare low print count. Recorded as being airdropped over Dusseldorf, Hanover, Bremen, and Dusiburg. Recorded as being ballon dropped over Dresden, Rostock, and Essen.

This incredible WWII era propaganda leaflet was air dropped by the British military (heavy bomber planes and ballon) over the Germans. Airborne leaflet propaganda (sometimes incorrectly referred to as a Letter bomb) is a form of psychological warfare in which leaflets (flyers) are scattered in the air. Military forces have used aircraft to drop leaflets to attempt to alter the behavior of combatants and non-combatants in enemy-controlled territory, sometimes in conjunction with air strikes. Humanitarian air missions, in cooperation with leaflet propaganda, can turn the populace against their leadership while preparing them for the arrival of enemy combatants.

This leaflet was created in the E.H./S.O.1 production agency and was printed by H.M.S.O. The first dissemination of this leaflet by British aircraft was recorded on 22/23 January 1941 and the first dissemination by ballon on 08/09 February 1941. The last recorded drop of these leaflets is documented as being made 15/16 February 1941 by aircraft and on 19/20 February 1941 by ballon. This leaflet is very rare in the scope of propaganda leaflets with a small batch of only 263,500 being dropped by aircraft and 342 being dropped by ballon during that time span with very few still existing today. Due to the harsh and strict rules in Germany at the time…civilians or soldiers caught holding leaflets such as this on their person were severely punished…ultimately leading to death. Because of the delicate nature of these leaflet many were burned, thrown away, and decayed due to the thin and delicate paper.

Translation:

ROOSEVELT HAS WARNED YOU 

"The Axis Powers will not win this war," said Roosevelt on the 29th December 1940. "I base this belief on the latest and best information." And he is acting accordingly.

Hitler will lose the war. After the war we shall build a new Europe, with or without your help. You know that rage and longing for revenge are not good foundation stones for a new building. But how is the avalanche of hatred and retribution to be halted, if – because of you – this war has to be fought out to the bitter end, and if all the crimes that have been perpetrated under the Swastika are written up against you. Must the whole German people lose the Nazis' war?

German workers, citizens, peasants and soldiers!

Today there are 80 millions of you. Hitler and his protégées, the men who began this war and get so much profit out of it, are a mere handful compared with you.

The Black List of 10,000,

which has already been prepared by Germans in your midst, is not yet closed. Remember everything that Hitler has done to you as well as to others! Remember that it is only your corpse-like obedience that keeps the whole pack in the saddle. Remember that you yourselves hold the weapons with which they threaten anyone who opposes them! Think of your future, the future of your children and of the whole German people!

Pull yourselves together at last!

Then, but only then, you and we can get to work together, for us and for you!

GERMANY'S FUTURE IS IN YOUR HANDS!

(REVERSE)

NOT YOUR CHILD…

But one of the countless children who were caught by the bombs of the German airmen. How much sorrow and misery, how many burnt out homes, ruined churches, devastated towns and villages are today a testimony against the mass who preached this war for 20 years, prepared it for 7 years, and unleashed it on the 1st September 1939! And all that was done in the name of the German Reich – in your name, under the Swastika flag – your flag – by German armies – your fathers, sons and brothers…

Look out for yourselves

Hitler's mastery will be over. The day is coming when the peoples that today are enslaved will again be free. It won't help you then to say:-

"But what else could we do? We could do nothing to stop it; we simply had to join in!"

150 million people who today are oppressed, robbed and tortured – Czechs, Poles, Norwegians, Danes, Dutchman, Belgians, Frenchmen – will then answer you:-

"It was your tolerance, your support that kept Hitler in being, whether you subjected yourselves willingly or unwillingly. It was because you kept your mouths shut that he was able to plunge us all into disaster. We have warned you often enough; you share the guilt!"

Germany suffered enough after the last war from the hatred of all nations. But what is the hatred of 1919 compared with the rage and longing for vengeance that today is mounting up everywhere against the Nazis?

DO YOU WANT TO PAY FOR THIS?