Photograph 1943
The object I’ve chosen this week is one that will be familiar to many readers. A photograph that shows Jewish families led, at gunpoint, out from the Warsaw Ghetto after the events of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943. It was named in Time magazine as one of the most iconic images in history; however, this photograph only tells one small part of the story, and arguably, only the part the perpetrators wanted to be remembered.
This image is part of the Museum’s new temporary exhibition The Eye as Witness: Recording the Holocaust curated by and on loan from the National Holocaust Centre Museum. The exhibition asks viewers to question the ethics of photography and the motives behind recording these historical events. By questioning these photographs and contextualising them, we gain a deeper understanding of the Holocaust and dispel the stereotypes that arise.
We know a lot about this photograph. A Nazi propaganda photographer took the image intentionally for what is commonly known as the “Stroop Report”. Officially titled “The Jewish Quarter of Warsaw is No More!”, the report was created as a souvenir for Heinrich Himmler, by Nazi Commander Stroop, to show the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto as a military success. The photograph shows Jewish people rounded up, held outside of one of the ghetto buildings at gunpoint, with their arms raised above their heads. There were clear intentions for the photograph to show Jewish people in a submissive manner, and to show the extent of Nazi superiority and control as they were moved onto trucks to be taken to the death camps. For those who do not know the history of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising they look at this photograph and see the Nazis’ intended subject: Jewish victims.
There is, however, much more behind the faces in the photograph and much more behind the choice of the photographer to create this image. The occupants of the Warsaw Ghetto had staged their largest resistance against the Nazi soldiers who were attempting to transport all the Jews out of the Ghetto to camps. The uprising started on April 19 1942, the eve of Passover that year, with resistance groups (the Jewish Combat Organisation and the Jewish Military Union) having managed to smuggle weapons into the Ghetto from Polish resistance groups. Although the Jewish Resistance groups were defeated, it was an embarrassing event for the Nazi troops.
Choosing to portray submissiveness was a conscious choice made by the photographer. There was a need for the ‘Stroop Report’ to demonstrate to Nazi high command that they were in complete control of the Warsaw Ghetto, which was not accurate. They wanted to show Jews as passive and compliant, which was not the case. They wanted to show weakness, where in fact there was strength. Where they saw the faces of victims, we can see the faces of fighters.
Today, the photographs that were taken for Nazi uses are now used across the world in in educational textbooks, history books and documentaries, and often without the users questioning the motives behind what is portrayed and why. We need to ask; what are we not seeing? What is the context? Once we understand the context the image, we can build a fresh understanding, away from the perpetrator gaze.
The Nazis wanted to show weakness where there was strength. They saw the faces of victims, we see fighters