Photographing the Holocaust: Interpretations of the Evidence by Janina Struk examines some of the ways photographs were taken in the Holocaust, used as evidence of crimes, as commemorations in museums and exhibits in former camps. Generally, Struk is appalled at how Holocaust photos have been used since the war. The lack of context of most images muddles history, and gives Holocaust deniers more fodder.
She is especially interested in how easy it is to access atrocity photographs. This book was published in 2004. Now, these photographs are even more accessible. The cat is out of the bag. Nothing can be done. Her final chapter called “Dying for Eternity” critiques the use of photographs from the Lili Jacob album at Birkenau as life-sized displays. She says the “Nazis took photographs of their victims to humiliate and degrade them. Are we not colluding with them by displaying them ourselves?”
Perhaps we are, but do we really have a choice? The standards that Struk sets for displaying Holocaust photographs are so high that they would almost never be shown. Finally, it is too late to have such scruples. The photographic image in 2004 is a very different entity in 2022.
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