![]() While he probably felt that their subjugation was inevitable in the face of the German Blitzkrieg, he nevertheless captures these already subjugated people sympathetically. To Jaeger (unlike for so many of the Reich’s supporters), Jews were not mere “rats,” or “parasites”: He simply perceived them as fascinating subjects. ![]() We can even go so far as to suggest that there is no sign of overt brutality here. In fact, Jaeger probably asked them for permission to take their pictures maybe he and they had a short chat before he began photographing them. Strikingly, none of the people in these photos appear to have been forced to pose. The men, women and children on the other side of the lens and Jaeger look upon one another without the aggression and tension characteristic of the relationship between perpetrator and victim. In this curiosity, there is no sense of hatred. They trust Jaeger, and are as curious about this man with a camera as he is about them. Most of the people in these pictures, Poles and Jews, are smiling at the camera. It is, of course, impossible to fully recreate exactly what Jaeger had in mind, but from the reactions of the people portrayed in these images in Warsaw and Kutno, there appears to be surprising little hostility between the photographer and his subjects. We see the devastation in the landscape of the German invasion of Poland, but very little of the “master race” itself. Here, in fact, there is virtually no German military presence at all. The photographs that Jaeger made in the German ghettos in occupied Poland, on the other hand, convey almost nothing of the triumphalism seen in so many of his other photographs. Those pictures frequently document brutal acts of humiliation, even as they glorify German troops. Why would Hugo Jaeger, a photographer dedicated to lionizing Adolf Hitler and the “triumphs” of the Third Reich, choose to immortalize conquered Jews in Warsaw and Kutno (in central Poland) in such an uncharacteristic, intimate manner? Most German photographers working in the same era as Jaeger usually focused on the Wehrmacht on Nazi leaders and on the military victories the Reich was routinely enjoying in the earliest days of the Second World War. ![]() Adding perspective to the images is an essay (below) by Justyna Majewska, discussing just what Jaeger’s haunting images can still tell us about that era, three-quarters of a century after they were made. ![]() Here, presents a series of photos from Warsaw and from the town of Kutno, 75 miles west of the Polish capital, in 19. The photos made such an impression on the Führer that Hitler famously declared, upon first seeing Jaeger’s work: “The future belongs to color photography.”īut beyond merely chronicling Hitler’s ceaseless travels, Jaeger also documented the brute machinery of the Reich, including the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, a German photographer and ardent Nazi named Hugo Jaeger enjoyed unprecedented access to the Third Reich’s upper echelon, traveling with Adolf Hitler to massive rallies and photographing him at intimate parties and in quieter, private moments.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |