Photographing the Holocaust

by Janina Struk

Atrocities committed by the Nazis during the Holocaust were photographed extensively. These images have been subjected to a perplexing variety of treatments: variously ignored, suppressed, distorted and--above all--exploited for propaganda purposes or political interest. This book examines the history of this aspect of the Holocaust--its aftermath and afterlife. Whether taken by Nazis or their collaborators, by Jews themselves, their sympathizers and the resistance movements in the occupied territories, or by Allied forces at the end of the war, Struk suggests that the provenance of these images has been seen as of secondary importance to their meaning and the political ends they have been used for--from the desperate attempts of the war-time underground, to the memorial museums of Europe, the US and Israel today. Struk recounts the history of the use and abuse of Holocaust photographs and asks whether or not these images can serve as "evidence", as true representations of the events they depict. The book is illustrated with a wide range of photographs, including some never before seen.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

264 pages, Paperback

First published March 4, 2004

Reviews

[Matthew Tree]

An interesting survey of the history of several emblematic photographs of the Shoah, including those taken by perpetrators and Nazi propagandists (indeed, most of the photographic evidence for the Holocaust comes from photographs taken by the people who carried it out, many of them apparently fascinated by their own activities). Struk insists on the importance of trying to 'situate' each picture in both time and place, and of identifying the photographer as closely as possible. The book's careful documentation is belied only once, when Struk, of Polish extraction, defends the Polish civilian population of charges of anti-Semitism. Many Poles risked their lives to save Jews in an almost impossible wartime situation (over 700 were executed for having done so) but often had to hide their fugitives from fellow Poles as well as the Germans and also Ukrainian collaborators. And many Poles denounced Jews in hiding to the occupation authorities, as Jan Karski, the famously heroic courier for the Polish Home Army, acknowledged to his superiors in London. This lapse aside, the book is well worth reading. The descriptions of the reactions to and content of Holocaust imagery in the West and the Soviet Union - completely different - are fascinating, not least because of the attempts of the Anglican Church to ban exhibitions of atrocity photographs in dear, delicate England. I now know why I was almost completely alone in reading about the Holocaust in depth for the first time back in the 1970s: it remained a taboo subject in the West for decades after the war, Struk dixit.

[Whitney Borup]

The first and last chapter of this book were super interesting, with some facts and figures in the middle that were pertinent to what I'm studying. Overall, though, I think it might have made a better essay than an entire book.

[Agnes Neier]

Lugesin seda väga kaua, sest see viis mind eksirännakutele teiste teoste juurde ja vahepeal lihtsalt vaimselt ei jaksanud ka. Kõige huvitavamad olid vast esimene ja viimane peatükk (eriti külma sõja mõjust holokausti kujutamisele/kajastamisele läänes ja üldse ikkagi see eetiline küsimus nende piltide vaatamisel ja taastootmisel).