They [the Trade Union Confederation] become aware of any new terrible danger of war and want to launch a counter-propaganda programme. Large posters illuminating the consequences of war are to be distributed in 14 European countries. […] You may imagine how deeply involved I have become. My initial plan was this: Women protecting their children, huddling together to form a black lump on the large white poster sheet – like animals defending their brood. But the people in Amsterdam insist on a design that shows the survivors, so this is what I am going to do. Parents, widows, blind people, surrounded by children with their anxiously quizzical, puzzled eyes and pale faces.«
Käthe Kollwitz, in: Beate Bonus Jeep, Sixty Years of Friendship with Käthe Kollwitz