This World War II poster asking the viewer to join the French Red Cross, which “opens the door to hope,” for an annual fee of 10 francs, is illustrated by a very literal composition; a Red Cross nurse opens a door in a war-torn city to a shadowy family of refugees. They walk through it into brilliant light marked by a red cross. Hope is therefore defined both in terms of physical escape from fear and of Christian revelation. Donations like those solicited here had been essential to the French Red Cross since its founding in 1859 by the aristocrat Henri Dunant to aid the wounded of the Battle of Solferino. Aristocrats and wealthy industrialists continued to be the chief donors to the organization until the German occupation of France in 1940. At that point, the French Red Cross began to focus its efforts not only on the wounded and on refugees but also on the 1.8 million French soldiers ultimately held prisoner in Germany. French citizens of every background were mobilized to contribute to these efforts by posters like this one.