WAR POSTER
Our featured war poster fits with our Flak and defence of the Reich theme and depicts a German Luftshutz air raid precautions poster aimed at recruiting Hitler Youth boys into the service.
As we have learned elsewhere in this edition of Iron Cross magazine, the employment of young boys serving in Flakartillerie units became relatively commonplace as the war ground on and manpower shortages became ever more critical. Also, on the German home-front, this same shortage impacted on the availability of fit men capable of serving in the Reichsluftschutzbund (RLB), more commonly known as the Luftschutz.
The Reichsluftschutzbund was the German civil defence/air raid precautions organisation which was set up in 1933 to provide a civil defence body to protect the civilian population against air attack. Although the casualty figures from Allied air attacks were horrendous, it is almost certainly the case they would have been much higher were it not for the stalwart services of the effective Luftschutz organisation.
Initially, Allied air attacks on Germany during the early part of the war were not particularly heavy or effective, but this all changed from 1942 onwards. Then, daylight attacks by the United States Eighth Air Force, in tandem with night raids by RAF Bomber Command, meant that German towns and cities were being subjected to round-the-clock air raids. The scale of damage and devastation called for an even greater input by the Luftshutz organsiation. However, as with the Flakartillerie, there were simply insufficient numbers of able-bodied adults available to fulfil the role.
One area of recruitment for the Luftschutz became the Hitler Jugend (Hitler Youth) organisation, and as virtually every young boy in Germany was a member, then it was the perfect source where the RLB could find its new recruits.
This was the recruitment poster to encourage Hitler Jugend boys to join the Luftshutz for what would undoubtedly be dangerous work during air raids, and in helping with rescue and firefighting in what could often be burning or collapsing buildings.
It is a poster typical of its time and its genre, showing a determined and blonde-haired young boy setting about his valuable work in the Luftschutz, looking suitably Aryan and heroic. The message was intended to appeal to young boys of the HJ, calling on them to serve in the protection of the Reich, their homeland, and in the safeguarding of their families.