Signal Years of Retreat, 1943-44 Hitler's Wartime Picture Magazine

A compilation of articles with rare colour and b&w photos from the English editions of Signal the German WW2 propoganda magazine from 1943 and 1944

Signal was a unique product of Germany's high-powered propaganda machinery: a nearly folio-sized magazine created in an effort to rally other European nations under the Teutonic banner, and to promote and justify German hegemony over Europe. It reached a maximum circulation of 2,500,000 copies per issue and was published fortnightly in a total of 25 different languages.

Based on the layout of LIFE, Signal utilized an exceptionally modern blend of articles and pictures. It was lavishly illustrated, including full-page colour plates. Outfitted with an elite of staff authors and war correspondents, and partly independent from the rigid censorship of Goebbels' Propaganda Ministry, Signal quickly established itself as the number one propaganda publication in wartime Europe.

In its March 22, 1943 feature on Allied and Axis propaganda LIFE conceded: "The Chief U.S. foreign propaganda magazine Victory is but a pallid imitation of the German Signal. Victory has less than half the circulation of Signal, contains no terrific propaganda sock like its Nazi counterpart."

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