Balder Ex-Libris

Author : Walendy Udo
Title : Do Photographs Prove the NS Extermination of the Jews ?
Year : 2003

Link download : Walendy_Udo_-_Do_Photographs_Prove_the_Ns_Extermination_of_the_Jews.zip

Introduction. Photographs played a central role in the arsenal with which Allied war propaganda slandered the enemy in World War One, as Ferdinand Avenarius has shown with numerous examples.1 Retouching techniques were admittedly quite crude in those days, and the falsifications were thus easy for a critical examiner to detect. However, such highly skilled souls were few and far between and, more importantly, not at all welcome in the agitated atmosphere of the First World War. Today people shake their heads in astonishment that even drawings and caricatures of contemporaries, crudely drawn and easily recognizable as such, were accepted as sterling truth. But do we really have any cause for such a condescending attitude? Alain Jaubert has shown that dictatorships in particular have a strong inclination for manipulating photos or producing posed and even completely faked photographs.2 Jaubert deals primarily with the self-portrayal of rulers by means of altered and ‘improved’ photographs and, unfortunately, all but dispenses with the interesting aspect of wartime propaganda – as well as the propaganda engaged in by democratic nations, which rarely exhibit any greater scruples in this matter than dictatorships. Great Britain no doubt leads this crowd. One of Jaubert’s examples warrants a closer look here. On page 78 of his book he reproduces a photograph that shows the abuse of English prisoners-of-war in France by French civilians at the time of German occupation during the Second World War. Jaubert interprets this as a photo made up by the German occupation troops. However, he provides no evidence to support his claim. Since the Allies also launched massive air raids on French cities, resulting in heavy losses of life among the civilian population,3 it certainly is not inconceivable that the French might have vented some anger on Allied prisoners-of-war, especially in light of the fact that a considerable part of the French population collaborated with the Germans, partly out of opportunism, partly out of conviction. But the Allied bombing of French targets as well as the war-time collaboration with the Germans are taboos in today’s French society. Therefore – is the photograph Jaubert shows really posed, or is his interpretation incorrect because in his opinion that which must not be cannot be? ...