Call for Crusaders. - Posters Artwork Documents | Gallery

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#1

Call for Crusaders.

"Europe against Bolshevism", a poster part of the ongoing campaign of the German authorities to raise enthusiasm and recruits from the populations of occupied western European states for their "crusade in the East". This example is specifically targeted at the French; variants existed for use in other occupied states. This call to arms met with a substantial response from anti-Communists in the West. Substantial numbers of volunteers answered this call, almost always on a purely voluntary basis, almost always subject to a guarantee (always honoured) that these recruits would be employed in fighting the Soviets only. The situation of "volunteers" to German formations in the East was quite different; there, substantial recourse was had to conscription in various forms, especially when it came to local ethnic Germans, to fill out the ranks of supposedly "volunteer" units. This "Nazi heritage" is an uncomfortable legacy of the war in a number of west European countries, for understandable reasons. The discomfort is enhanced for those who are aware of the matter by the fact that several of the "founding fathers" of the present European Union had distinctly spotty records when it came to pro-Nazi wartime activities. This is not to say that the EU is National Socialist in any direct way; it is, however, approaching the point of becoming a totalitarian "consultative bureaucracy", and recent accessions to the Union, not to mention recent developments in the Ukraine, suggest to some that the EU has an agenda of bringing eastern Europe under its sway by substituting a particular brand of politics and diplomacy for panzers. One of the people so convinced would appear to be Vladimir Putin and, up to a point at least, it is hard to deny that he may have a point ... Yours from under the desk, JR.

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.ww2incolor.com/gallery/art/51739/call-for-crusaders.
#2

That’s true ,JR. However i have to add, the current Putin’s point is not against EU or it’s beurocracy - but against the EU to be the puppet of US:))))Putin has spend a lot of political and economical efforts to make Russia more economically closer to EU states ( at least to it’s major members like GErmany ) via the gas supplies. Which has made the EU’s industry more competitive in a market. But who needs the strong european competitor, obviously not the US…Cheers.

#3
#4

Interesting artwork. JR, you say it was designed to target the French and the language obviously is. I wonder if the artist was also French? Pale, ghost-like figures march east. The dark negative spaces between the ranks is suggestive of men cringing back westwards. Volunteers go east to die, allowing Germans to creep back home? Knowing some stories about advertising art, I doubt the imagery was accidental, yet the Germans don’t seem to have noticed.

Regarding politics – I believe the “founding fathers” you refer to have mostly or entirely passed from the stage. And I think you grasp full well the historical reasons for why the Western powers worked with those who had such “spotty” records. I would say guess most of the EU’s leadership is too young to be directly effected by pro-German WWII activities. And while you may have a point about the EU trying to sway eastern Europe with politics and diplomacy (trade too, I should add), it’s also clear Putin has more of a “panzer” approach for doing the same thing.

#5

French LVF (Légion des Volontaires Français contre le Bolchévisme) Propaganda Poster
French Legion of Voluntaries against Bolchevism