Posters were an important propaganda medium during the second World War. During the first year of the war, German propaganda was still restrained. The posters regularly dealt with the changes effected by the war on daily life. From 1941, the German propaganda machine was in full swing, and posters encouraged the public to join the SS or to go work in Germany. NSB propaganda called for support of a National Socialist Dutch state, and the seemingly impartial Winterhulp (Winter Relief) used posters to advertise.

As Germany's fortunes in the war diminished, the propaganda grew more sharply anti-allied and grimmer. Posters warned against allied air-raids, threatened with heavy punishment for any form of resistance and announced executions. The underground also created posters on occasion, and in London, posters were produced already in 1944 to be hung up in liberated Holland.

In Dutch East Indies, the Japanese occupying forces used posters to promote their ideal of a Great Asia.