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[NAZI PROPAGANDA AIMED AT SOVIET PEOPLE] Stat’ khozyainom ili kalekoy? Chto luchshe? Vybiray! [i.e. Become a Master or a Cripple? Which is Better? Choose!]

Item #2593

[Germany, 1940s]. 20,9 × 14,7 cm. Tears on edges, leaflet folded. Small piece of margin lost, no text or image affected.

Serial number 367 RA/vp. The text of the appeal reads: ‘Stalin and his henchmen, in the interests of international capital and the Jews, are driving you to certain death. They are driving you while in the regions liberated from the Bolsheviks a new life is being built without penal kolkhozes, without capitalists, without landowners, without sweatshop Stakhanovism and socialist competitions!’

The leaflet has served as a pass for the Soviet soldiers, who wanted to surrender. The slogan ’Shtyki v zemliu’ was created by the Reich propaganda early in 1941 campaign to convince the opposition to surrender. Many leaflets like this one included the images of the life after the war, others showed the exemplary conditions for the captured soldiers, also leaflets with anti-Stalin and anti-Jewish caricatures are known.
According to various sources, at least 117,000 Soviet citizens voluntarily crossed the front line, risking life and limb to surrender to the Germans. In addition, up to 6% of soldiers taken prisoner by the Germans decided to join the German forces. No other allied army in the second world war had such a large share of defectors. Put together with civilians, some 1.6 million Soviet citizens became military collaborators with the fascists. Notably, most of the collaborators who survived the war were ultimately imprisoned and repatriated to the Soviet Union, where they would face execution or incarceration by the Soviet government for collaborating with the Nazis.

Rare as a wartime ephemera.

Price: $500.00

Status: On Hold