WW2 - The Second World War: "The 'Bad Old Days' are gone!"

Sunday, June 30, 2013

Wartime German propaganda poster
[Bondues Resistance Museum, Nord, France]

For additional information click on 'Comments' below.
=================================

ritsonvaljos said...: Additional information

This is one of a series of pro-German poster distributed throughout Occupied France during WW2. This one dates from 1943.

It can be translated as follows:

"The 'Bad Old Days' are gone! Daddy makes money in Germany."

In the original French the poster reads as follows:
« Finis les mauvais jours ! Papa gagne de l'argent en Allemagne ! »
-------------------------------

This poster was intended to encourage skilled Frenchmen to go and work in Germany where they can earn good money for his loved ones. One of the Frenchmen in the top left of the poster smiles in the direction of his contended and happy wife and young daughter in the front foreground of the poster.

One may consider how sweet is this poster? Is this really the family life promoted by the Government of Marshall Petain? In 1943, about the time this poster was distributed throughout Occupied France something close to 300,000 Frenchmen were voluntarily working in Germany. The numbers were still not enough. The Vichy Government imposed the S.T.O. (Compulsory Work Order) forcing even more Frenchmen to work in Germany.

One might make the case that the 'Bad Old Days' departed with the end of the war. The 'Good Old Days' returned with menfolk when they landed back home from Germany.
--------------------------------; Sunday, 30 June, 2013