War Prisoners Aid

This haunting World War II poster for War Prisoners Aid, with its slogan "Until the Last Man is Free," appeals to American humanitarian sentiment while promoting contributions to the National War Fund. War Prisoners Aid received nearly ten percent of the three hundred twenty-one million dollars disbursed by the National War Fund between 1943 and 1947, making it one of the most significant beneficiaries among the twenty-plus overseas relief programs coordinated under this umbrella organization. The poster's stark imagery of prisoners behind barbed wire reminded civilian Americans that their financial contributions could provide Red Cross packages, books, recreational equipment, and moral support to captured servicemen enduring the psychological torment of indefinite captivity.