| Original caption: “The German Labor Day is different. One factory, one union, one guard.” Artist Theodor Seuss Geisel (March 2, 1904 – September 24, 1991)depicts a caricature of Nazi German Führer und Reichskanzler (“Leader and Reichchancellor”) Adolf Hitler (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945) guarding factories in Occupied Europe with a rifle, bayonet, and bullwhip. Geisel portrays a comical Hitler, akin to Charlie Chaplin’s (April 16, 1889 – December 29, 1977) “The Great Dictator,” a political satire from 1940 that, while cognizant of fascist antisemitism, did not yet presage the full scope of the Holocaust and the Konzentrationslager system. A swastika flag flies high over the occupied European industrial complex. Tag Der Deutschen Arbeit (“Day of German Work”) was celebrated every May 1 from 1933 to 1939. On May 2, 1933, the Nazis seized the trade unions, editorial offices, pay agencies, and other associations of the labor movements. The police did not intervene. All assets were seized. Labor leaders were detained, and some died in “protective detention.” The organizations were allowed to continue under the auspices of the Nationalsozialistische Betriebszellenorganisation (NSBO – “National Socialist Factory Cell Organization”). During the war, Tag Der Deutschen Arbeit was minimized as war production quotas were raised ever higher. In occupied Europe, millions of men, women, and children were displaced and forced to provide slave labor to the Nazis. Many people, especially Jews, were killed under a conscious policy of “annihilation through work,” under which specific categories of prisoners were literally worked to death. During Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union in the Summer of 1941, millions of Soviet Prisoners of War fell into Nazi hands. The NAzi Germans allowed millions of Soviet prisoners of war (POWs) to die through a deliberate policy of neglect (insufficient food, clothing, shelter, or medical care). However, in the spring of 1942, the German authorities also began to deploy Soviet POWs for forced labor in various war-related industries. From 1942 to 1944, the Germans deported nearly 3,000,000 Soviet citizens to Germany, Austria, and Bohemia-Moravia as forced laborers. At the end of the war, millions of non-German displaced persons were left in Germany, including some tens of thousands of Jews who had survived the “Final Solution,” victims of Nazi policies of deportation for forced labor. In 1942, Geisel turned his energies to support the American war effort directly. 1st, he worked on drawing posters for the Treasury Department and the War Production Board. Geisel enlisted in the United States Army Air Force as a Captain in 1943 and was assigned to the 1st Motion Picture Unit. There he wrote films that included “Your Job in Germany,” a 1945 propaganda film about peace in Europe after World War II; “Our Job in Japan,” and the Private Snafu series of adult army training films. While in the Army, he was awarded the Legion of Merit. He was discharged as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1946. After General of the Army Douglas MacArthur (January 26, 1880 – April 5, 1964) suppressed Geisel’s training film “Our Job in Japan,” Geisel and his wife, Helen Palmer Geisel (September 16, 1898 – October 23, 1967), used it as the basis for their screenplay for the 1947 documentary “Design for Death,” which earned an Academy Award. Warner & Swasey produced metalworking lathes that, in turn, made components for tanks, guns, ships, and airplanes. The company employed 7,000 people and produced half of the turret lathes – a machine tool with multiple cutting heads – manufactured in the United States. The company’s relationship with the military dated to the late 19th century, when workers began making precision instruments such as range finders, gunsight scopes, and binoculars. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0910.jpg |
| Image Size | 688.51 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 3000 x 2838 |
| Photographer | Theodor Geisel |
| Photographer Title | War Production Board |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | January 1, 1942 |
| Location | |
| City | Washington |
| State or Province | District of Columbia |
| Country | United States |
| Archive | National Archives and Records Administration |
| Record Number | NWDNS-179-WP-1008 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
Author of the World War II Multimedia Database