Information Costs Lives

As the conflict in Indonesia became a guerrilla war, many civilians were drawn as participants, bystanders, or victims, and Dutch troops often could not tell allies from enemies. This instructional poster warned soldiers to stay quiet about military matters; "Zwijg!" means "Keep silent!" The point was that anyone might be the enemy and danger lay everywhere, so one could never speak freely, a warning driven home by a palm tree and a kampong (Indonesian village) house leaning in to "listen" on the soldiers' conversation.