Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/08/22

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Subject: Re: Riefenstahl
From: "Steven L. Alexander" <alexpix@worldnet.att.net>
Date: Fri, 22 Aug 1997 09:39:18 -0400

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To all:

	Please excuse the rather long attached file.  It is an article from the
Jerusalem Post 8.23.97.  	

	It demonstrates the choices people could make and that many great
photographers made choice to reject the horrors of that engulfed Germany in
the thirties and the rest of the world in the forties.

Shalom,
Steven Alexander
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<Picture>=A0 =A0 ISRAEL'S TOP ONLINE NEWS SOURCE
=A0 =A0 Friday, August 22, 1997 =A0 =A0 19 Av 5757 =A0 =A0 ISRAEL TIME: =
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ISRAEL TIME:
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Photographers, lost and found=20



By DAVID BRAUNER=20



(19 August) - 'David Brauner?" The caller was Pesi Girsch, who explained =
she was the Israel curator for a German exhibition of exiled =
photographers. Girsch was looking for a German-born photographer called =
Theodor (Teddy) Brauner.



<Picture>She'd plucked my name from the telephone directory, and =
wondered if, by chance, I was a relative. It was a possibility, I told =
her, but only if some family branch unknown to us had survived the =
Holocaust. I'd never heard of Teddy Brauner, but as a photographer, I =
was excited at the thought. I decided to try to find him.



Girsch, a photographer, artist and lecturer in Haifa University's arts =
department, explained that Brauner was one of the hundreds of =
photographers who left Germany during the Hitler period, and that the =
Rheinisches Landesmuseum of Bonn was mounting a massive exhibition of =
their collected works from May to August.



When curators Klaus Honnef and Frank Weyers began three years ago, the =
project was tentatively called "Photography in Exile." As the work =
progressed, however, a far more emotive title evolved: "Und sie haben =
Deutschland verlassen ... muessen," roughly "And They Left Germany ... =
They Had To." The job was immense. Names led to more names. Germany's =
photographic diaspora spread around the world, from the US, Britain and =
Israel to Brazil, Puerto Rico and China.



The curators likened their collecting of photographs and biographies to =
piecing together "mosaic stones" scrambled by time and events. The =
gigantic display of 603 images by 171 photographers nevertheless leaves =
"many gaps." And for many, the exhibition has come too late.



Needless to say, the legendary names of Capa, Eisenstaedt, Halsmann, =
Kertesz, Vishniac, Lotte Jacobi and Lisette Model, and the archetypal =
images of 20th-century photography are well represented. More important, =
perhaps, are the "lesser names, as good as forgotten," which the =
research has resurrected.



Photography proved a practical passport out of Germany. A respected =
profession, it provided the exiles with a livelihood in strange new =
countries and minimized the language problem. Well-trained photographers =
worked in all fields: scientific and technical; journalism, advertising =
and fashion; art and landscape.



In a number of instances, husbands and wives as well as siblings shared =
the love and business of photography. And, unlike many other trades and =
professions in Germany, photography included many women.



Naturally, Jews made up the majority of exiles. But Germany in the '30s =
made life uncomfortable for others as well. Hans Namuth (d. 1990, New =
York) was jailed in 1933 for distributing anti-Nazi leaflets. His =
father, who was a high-ranking SS officer, had Namuth freed and sent him =
off to Paris. Father and son never saw one another again.



Eva Siao left Germany in 1932 and found shelter in China. During the =
Cultural Revolution she was imprisoned for seven years in solitary =
confinement. Nevertheless, her love for China has not diminished.



Georg Reisner, a brilliant young photographer, suffered a tragic fate in =
a French internment camp in 1940. The telegram informing him that his US =
visa was ready arrived two days after he committed suicide at age 29.



The represented work is highly diverse in subject matter, style and =
technique, but much speaks of death and displacement. Madame D'Ora (Dora =
Kallmus, d. 1963) devoted her later years to photographing the severed =
heads of cattle in Paris slaughterhouses.



About 25 percent of the photographers came to Palestine, mostly in the =
'30s. The Jewish entity was not kind to the careers of many of them. But =
those who survived mirrored the hopes and dreams of the Jewish settlers =
and helped create an identity for the new state.



For many of these men and women, The Jerusalem Post Archives, where I =
worked for 15 years, was a focal point. It was a privilege to know the =
quiet and unpretentious Fred Czasznik (d. 1985), winner of the coveted =
Capa-Chim Prize for news photography. "Old-timers" like Rolf Kneller, =
Efrem Ilani and Werner Braun would also drop by. Still others, like Dr. =
Kurt Meyerowitz, Ricarda Schwerin and Marli Shamir, I knew only from =
their pictures in the archives.



Thanks to the richly illustrated 528-page catalog (in German, with an =
English version in the works) of the exhibition - easily one of the most =
important volumes ever produced on the history of 20th-century =
photography - neither their names nor their pictures will be forgotten.



Now back to Teddy Brauner. He arrived here in the '30s. Through Girsch I =
made contact with a former colleague of Brauner's, Hugo Mendelsohn. =
Mendelsohn and Brauner worked together as photographers in the army =
press liaison unit during the early days of the state.



In the 1950s and '60s, Brauner was active in the Government Press =
Office. After that the trail vanished. The Interior Ministry lost track =
of him 14 years ago. His last known whereabouts was Paris. The search =
goes on.



(With thanks to Erna Brauner for help with the German translations.)





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