Through amateur eyes: Film and photography in Nazi Germany

384 Pages·11.754 MB·English

by  Guerin, Frances

through amateur eyes

Through Amateur Eyes
film and photography in nazi germany
Frances Guerin
University of Minnesota Press
Minneapolis
London
An earlier version of chapter 3 was published as “Reframing the Photographer
and His Photographs,” Film and History 32, no. 1 (2002): 43–54. Portions
of chapter 4 were previously published as “The Energy of Disappearing:
Problems of Recycling Nazi Amateur Film Footage,” Screening the Past 17
(November2004).
Copyright 2012 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the publisher.
Published by the University of Minnesota Press
111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290
Minneapolis, MN 55401-2520
http://www.upress.umn.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Guerin, Frances.
Through amateur eyes : film and photography in Nazi Germany /
Frances Guerin.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-8166-7006-2 (hardback: alk paper)
isbn 978-0-8166-7007-9 (pb: alk paper)
1. World War II, 1939–1945—Germany—Sources. 2. Germany—
History—1933–1945—Sources. 3. Germany—Social conditions—1933–1945.
4.World War II, 1939–1945—Photography. 5. Vernacular photography—
Germany—History—20th century. 6. World War II, 1939–1945—Destruction
and pillage—Germany—Pictorial works. I. Title.
DD253.G844 2012
791.430943'09044—dc23
2011030505
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
The University of Minnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and employer.
18 17 16 15 14 13 12 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For my friends
This page intentionally left blank
The critical aim... must... never be merely to deconstruct Holocaust
narrative into so many columns of inert myths, grammars, and figures.
Instead of engaging in a sterile pursuit of deep mythological, religious,
and linguistic structures constituting only the literary texts of the
Holocaust, the aim... is to explore both the plurality of meanings in
the Holocaust these texts generate and the actions that issue from these
meanings outside of the texts. Rather than merely deconstructing this
narrative or its criticism, or de-historicizing it altogether, [the] attempt
here [is] to re-historicize it by looking beyond interpretation to its
consequences in history.
■ James Young, Writing and Rewriting the Holocaust
Its photographs... are customarily read for content and as illustrations
of the well-known story of the immoral and barbaric ideology of the
Nazi system. As long as the answer to the question as to what they show
is known in advance, they will remain silent.... The questions as to
what these images show, what they meant for the photographers and
what they mean for us are answered neither by varied references to the
murderous ideas of Nazi-racism nor by reference to the pathological
psyche of actors. Only focusing on the concreteness of details and the
iconography of the pictures will make “visible” what can be seen in the
photos and break the blockade of silence.
■ Bernd Hüppauf, “Emptying the Gaze”
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction: Alternate Perspectives from Nazi Germany xiii
. Witnessing from a Distance, Remembering from Afar:
How to See Amateur Images 
. On the Eastern Front with the German Army 
. The Privilege and Possibility of Color: The Case of
Walter Genewein’s Photographs 
. Europe at War in Color and Motion 
. At Home, at Play, on Vacation with Eva Braun:
From the Berghof to YouTube and the Imperative
to Remember 
Notes 
Index 