Elizabeth Friedländer

[1] Hitler came to power just as the type was ready for casting in 1938 and Hartmann suggested that the name of the face be changed to Elizabeth, since Friedländer, a recognizably Jewish name, would be inadvisable in the current political conditions, still giving her credit.

She learnt the language and worked with the publisher Mondadori, but September 1938 brought harsh Italian Antisemitic Laws, threatening her with loss of rights and employment.

Unable, as she had hoped, to go to the United States, where the New York office of the Bauer Foundry were eager to employ her, she obtained a Domestic Service permit for Britain and went to London with her two portfolios of work and an early 18th-century Klotz violin that had belonged to her mother.

By 1942 she was in charge of design at the Ministry of Information’s black propaganda unit, led by Ellic Howe, where she produced forged Wehrmacht and Nazi rubber stamps, false ration books, and so on, while at the same time carrying out freelance commissions.

Later work included the series Britain in Pictures, patterned papers for Curwen and Penguin Books, decorative borders for Linotype, printer's flowers for Monotype,[4] and calligraphy for the Roll of Honour at Sandhurst.