Through Different Lenses
A bit of a stir was sparked recently by a newly opened photographic exhibit on display at the Paris Historical Library. The ruckus arose over what some feel is the exhibit’s skewed depiction of life in Paris under German occupation from 1940 through 1944. Entitled The Parisians Under the Occupation, the exhibit contains 270 color photos showing the people of Paris engaging in the pleasures of life seemingly undisturbed by events going on in the world beyond the picture frame. The portraits from the city of light show a place barely ruffled by the occasional intrusion of uniformed German soldiers enjoying a stroll or taking in the sights. Critics have denounced the show for its failure to place the photographs in proper context. They point out that the pictures were taken by a photographer accredited to the Nazi propaganda service whose choice of subject carefully excluded the hardships of wartime and the darker sides of occupation – such as executions or the deportation of French Jews.
One does indeed wonder what precisely the exhibit organizers intended. If they sought to remind Parisians that the jackboot-heel of German oppression did not lay equally as heavy on all French necks, then they have obviously succeeded. Any desire on the part of the French to see themselves depicted as victims is jarred by these pictures of smiling, well-clad and seemingly happy Parisians enjoying a delightful sunning at a sidewalk café.
By showing the ordinariness of daily life of many in Parisians, little affected by the “big events” going on around them, the exhibit obviously presents an incomplete picture of the times. But its incompleteness somehow points an even sharper finger at what has been omitted. It also reminds us of just how selective our viewpoints on the past can be, of our preference for remembering the pleasanter things of life – even when they are lived out against a backdrop of mass murder, war and widespread devastation. Sometimes – maybe most of the time – life just goes on.
By coincidence, and not unrelated, the US Holocaust Memorial Museum announced the addition of a set of recently acquired photographs to its permanent collection. Taken from the personal photo-album of the deputy to the commandant of Auschwitz, these pictures also show us people enjoying themselves and relaxing – except that in this case the people depicted are all SS-personnel living out their pleasurable lives in closest proximity to mass slaughter. Again, as with the pictures from Paris, it’s the ordinariness of the things shown and the purposeful exclusion of the horrors going on beyond the frame that is the most striking thing about them.
The two sets of pictures do differ in one way, of course. Viewed with a fuller knowledge, the “normality” of wartime Paris depicts, at worst, an unsettling, disturbing dissonance. The “normality” of SS life at Auschwitz, however, is an outright obscenity.
International Herald Tribune article on Paris exhibit:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/25/europe/paris.php
Paris Historical Library photographic exhibit:
http://www.paris.fr/portail/Culture/Portal.lut?page_id=102&document_type_id=2&document_id=50952&portlet_id=818
US Holocaust Memorial Museum SS photographs:
http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/ssalbum/
One does indeed wonder what precisely the exhibit organizers intended. If they sought to remind Parisians that the jackboot-heel of German oppression did not lay equally as heavy on all French necks, then they have obviously succeeded. Any desire on the part of the French to see themselves depicted as victims is jarred by these pictures of smiling, well-clad and seemingly happy Parisians enjoying a delightful sunning at a sidewalk café.
By showing the ordinariness of daily life of many in Parisians, little affected by the “big events” going on around them, the exhibit obviously presents an incomplete picture of the times. But its incompleteness somehow points an even sharper finger at what has been omitted. It also reminds us of just how selective our viewpoints on the past can be, of our preference for remembering the pleasanter things of life – even when they are lived out against a backdrop of mass murder, war and widespread devastation. Sometimes – maybe most of the time – life just goes on.
By coincidence, and not unrelated, the US Holocaust Memorial Museum announced the addition of a set of recently acquired photographs to its permanent collection. Taken from the personal photo-album of the deputy to the commandant of Auschwitz, these pictures also show us people enjoying themselves and relaxing – except that in this case the people depicted are all SS-personnel living out their pleasurable lives in closest proximity to mass slaughter. Again, as with the pictures from Paris, it’s the ordinariness of the things shown and the purposeful exclusion of the horrors going on beyond the frame that is the most striking thing about them.
The two sets of pictures do differ in one way, of course. Viewed with a fuller knowledge, the “normality” of wartime Paris depicts, at worst, an unsettling, disturbing dissonance. The “normality” of SS life at Auschwitz, however, is an outright obscenity.
International Herald Tribune article on Paris exhibit:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/25/europe/paris.php
Paris Historical Library photographic exhibit:
http://www.paris.fr/portail/Culture/Portal.lut?page_id=102&document_type_id=2&document_id=50952&portlet_id=818
US Holocaust Memorial Museum SS photographs:
http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/ssalbum/
KMPRINCE - Wed May 14, 17:51 Topic: Europe
