Album of the Damned by Paul Garson
The nearly 400 WI photographs in this book were taken primarily by German soldiers; some by civilians; some by professionals embedded with the troops. Consequently, many of them depict everyday life: jobs, weddings, dinners, musical and other social events--men and women at work and play as well as at war, a war that nearly consumed Europe. It is precisely the seemingly ordinary aspect of these snapshots--taken for family albums and for friends--that makes them so disturbing, because some of the subjects who smile benignly at the camera are the very same people who participated in the murder of millions of European civilians: Jews, Catholics, Protestants, Roma, intellectuals, homosexuals, clergy, adults, children, and infants. And they killed with apparent equanimity, without hesitation, without doubt, without regret. Album of the Damned contains pictures mostly never seen before, the majority of which were once in family albums and are pictured here with their original paper frames. Their impact is deeply disturbing precisely because they are so pedestrian. Thus, in this book, the questions once again arise as they have for so many decades: How could such ordinary people commit such brutal acts? How was it possible? The questions remain unanswerable, as they ever will be. The author acquired these photographs from some fifteen countries during a five-year research effort, reviewing more than 100,000 images from which he made his selection. He bid in auctions against museums and private collectors to create a WI photo history unlike perhaps any other.
Album of the Damned is a very special document; a unique and well-researched collection of photographs of German civilians and soldiers at work and playComing face to face with the seeming 'normalcy' of these images is what stuns the reader. The visuals and the commentary are powerful and remarkably fresh. - Michael Birnbaum, Professor of Jewish Studies The American Jewish University, Los Angeles, California
Garson, Paul: - Paul Garson has a 30-year background in journalism and photography that has produced some 2500 magazine and periodical features, including a number of articles in World War II History and World War II Quarterly. A free-lance writer, he lives in Los Angeles.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780897335768 |
| ISBN 10 | 0897335767 |
| Title | Album of the Damned |
| Author | Paul Garson |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Academy Chicago Publishers |
| Year published | 2008-09-01 |
| Number of pages | 410 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |