Although he was clearly affected by the war and had a reputation of working from photographic sources, Bacon never unambiguously acknowledged a direct line between his paintings and German propaganda. Hammer notes that Bacon preferred that his work "seep through" the viewer organically and without formal explanation, but he highlights paintings such as Three Studies for a Crucifixion (1962), where Bacon had admitted to using images of Hitler and Eichmann only subsequently to disavow his words. Bacon also dismissed the inclusion of a red armband in Crucifixion (1965) as a solely aesthetic choice, but Hammer uncovered a clipping from the Sunday Times Magazine tucked away in his studio, showing the streets of Nazi Berlin draped in crimson flags.

Later in his career, Bacon attempted to destroy all the canvases he created before his seminal work, Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion (c. 1944). Even the triptych played a role in the cover-up, as X-ray imaging of the right panel (above) revealed a figure closely resembling the Nazi propagandist Julius Streicher hidden beneath thick layers of burnt orange paint. Hammer's Bacon is a purposefully elusive man keen on hiding his tracks.