Law of War

derwolfsmantel: Photographs of a devastated post-war Berlin in...

Thu, 23 May 2013 18:44:30 -0400

Photographs of a devastated post-war Berlin in the summer of 1945.

“When Allied observers came to Germany after the war, most of them expected to find destruction on the same scale as they had witnessed in Britain during the Blitz. Even after British and American newspapers and magazines began to print pictures and descriptions of the devastation it was impossible to prepare for the sight of the real thing. Austin Robinson, for example, was sent to western Germany directly after the war on behalf of the British Ministry of Production. His description of Mainz while he was there displays his sense of shock:

That skeleton, with whole blocks level, huge areas with nothing but walls standing, factories almost completely gutted, was a picture that I know will live with me for life. One had known it intellectually without feeling it emotionally or humanly.

British Lieutenant Philip Dark was equally apallaed by the apocalyptic vision he saw in Hamburg at the end of the war:

[W]e swung in towards the centre and started to enter a city devastated beyond all comprehension. It was more than appallaing. As far as the eye could see, square mile after square mile of empty shells of buildings with twisted girders scarecrowed in the air, radiators of a flat jutting out from a shaft of a still-standing wall, like a crucified pterodactyl skeleton. Horrible, hideous shapes of chimneys sprouting from the frame of a wall. The whole pervaded by an atmosphere of ageless quiet… Such impressions are incomprehensible unless seen.

Berlin was “completely shattered - just piles of rubble and skeleton houses.” Between 18 and 20 million German people were rendered homeless by the destruction of their cities - that is the same as the combined prewar populations of Holland, Belgium, and Luxembourg. These people lived in cellars, ruins, holes in the ground - anywhere they could find a modicum of shelter. They were entirely deprived of essential servies, such as water, gas, electricity - as were millions of others across Europe.”

(Text via Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of World War II by Keith Lowe; photographs via)

Photo

Thu, 23 May 2013 18:44:13 -0400

"Cruelty has a Human Heart And Jealousy a Human Face, Terror, the Human Form Divine, And Secrecy, the..."

Thu, 23 May 2013 18:43:33 -0400

“

Cruelty has a Human Heart
And Jealousy a Human Face,
Terror, the Human Form Divine,
And Secrecy, the Human Dress.

The Human Dress is forgèd Iron
The Human Form, a fiery Forge,
The Human Face, a Furnace seal’d,
The Human Heart, its hungry Gorge.

”

- “A Divine Image”

William Blake, Songs of Innocence and Experience
(via nightingalette)

rfssheinrichimmler: Himmler at Auschwitz

Thu, 23 May 2013 16:12:03 -0400

rfssheinrichimmler:

Himmler at Auschwitz

rfssheinrichimmler: Himmler and Heydrich

Thu, 23 May 2013 16:11:36 -0400

rfssheinrichimmler:

Himmler and Heydrich

demons: The body of Heinrich Himmler after his suicide, 23 May...

Thu, 23 May 2013 16:10:48 -0400

demons:

The body of Heinrich Himmler after his suicide, 23 May 1945

demons: The photographer’s caption: “With the free French...

Thu, 23 May 2013 13:19:40 -0400

demons:

The photographer’s caption: “With the free French forces in the Western Desert: A ‘poilu’ taking a drink after dinner—March 1942, Libya”

opacasilentianoctis: Colonel Rams (second from left) at the...

Thu, 23 May 2013 13:19:08 -0400

opacasilentianoctis:

Colonel Rams (second from left) at the T-34 battle line indicates the tanks of its parts.

opacasilentianoctis: Watch the Soviet battleship “October...

Thu, 23 May 2013 13:18:19 -0400

opacasilentianoctis:

Watch the Soviet battleship “October Revolution.”

opacasilentianoctis: Finnish Defence Minister General Rudolf...

Thu, 23 May 2013 13:18:10 -0400

opacasilentianoctis:

Finnish Defence Minister General Rudolf Walden (Rudolf Walden) (01.12.1878-25.10.1946) speaks at a meeting dedicated to disabled veterans. Of 1940-1941.

opacasilentianoctis: German Admiral Karl Doenitz (center). The...

Thu, 23 May 2013 13:18:00 -0400

opacasilentianoctis:

German Admiral Karl Doenitz (center). The head of state and commander of the armed forces of Germany from April 30 to May 23, 1945.

Photo

Thu, 23 May 2013 13:17:46 -0400

Photo

Thu, 23 May 2013 13:17:01 -0400

house-of-romanov: Warsaw uprising, 1944

Thu, 23 May 2013 13:16:46 -0400

house-of-romanov:

Warsaw uprising, 1944

opacasilentianoctis: German reconnaissance plane Focke-Wulf...

Thu, 23 May 2013 13:15:53 -0400

opacasilentianoctis:

German reconnaissance plane Focke-Wulf Fw.189 in flight.

unbekanntersoldat: German armoured train.

Thu, 23 May 2013 13:15:26 -0400

unbekanntersoldat:

German armoured train.

ifthisisaman: Josef Dietrich and his wife Ursula, Berlin 1942.

Thu, 23 May 2013 13:14:45 -0400

ifthisisaman:

Josef Dietrich and his wife Ursula, Berlin 1942.

likeafieldmouse: Christian Boltanski - Kaddish (published in...

Wed, 22 May 2013 19:29:57 -0400

likeafieldmouse:

Christian Boltanski - Kaddish (published in 1998) - Objects confiscated by Nazis, some found in sewers, deposited in the Central Jewish Museum, Prague

“The banal tenor and specificity of context in Boltanski’s still-lifes introduce an interesting dialogue as the tonality and depth, or lack thereof, in his photographs render what are reasonably delicate subjects, into mute and objectified echos from a nonspecific time or place. Boltanski’s infatuation with confiscated war relics, (post-) belongings and objet trouvé presented throughout his tetrad make reference to the anonymity and translucence of memory, the interstitial space between sentimentality and indifference, and ultimately focus on transience, singularity and, often forced, despondency.

Having absented himself from formal education in his preteens, Boltanski moved from rudimentary sculpture, drawing and painting to installations of pensive and introspective sculptural, filmic, and photographic works, questioning his own substance and significance in relation to memory, lineage and cultural praxis.

When Boltanski’s work seems to display a profound melancholy or contemplation on histories past, it is the artist who abruptly categorizes his works as quotidian debris, coincidence or ‘stupid’ objects – stating that that it is ‘simply much easier to be dead, than to be alive.’”

greatestgeneration: Henry Fonda, US Navy photo

Wed, 22 May 2013 14:54:11 -0400

greatestgeneration:

Henry Fonda, US Navy photo

demons: Warsaw at the end of September and after facing the...

Wed, 22 May 2013 14:51:56 -0400

demons:

Warsaw at the end of September and after facing the German Blitzkrieg, 28 Sept 1939