Re: [Leica] Berlin 1945

[chucko@siteconnect.com (Chuck Albertson)]

That photo was taken by Yevgeny Khaldei, the TASS photographer who passed
away recently, shortly after his book "Witness to History" was published by
Aperture. I don't think the photo was totally staged, though---Khaldei
supplied the flag (one of his relatives sewed it and sent it to him before
the Red Army started its final push to Berlin), but the troops he was with
had to fight their way to the roof. For some reason, the Reichstag was seen
as the focus of evil by the Soviets, even though the Nazis hadn't used the
place since the Big Fire; the real seat of government was over in Hitler's
bunker by the time the Red Army hit town.

Kahldei used a pre-war Leica throughout the war; Deutsche Welle TV even did
a doco on him about 10 years ago, titled "Leica No. XXXXXxxxxx" (sorry, I
don't remember the real serial number). That he was able to use it all that
time says a lot for the Leica's durability---repairs in the field would have
been difficult, and sending it to the factory would have been somewhat
awkward.

Khaldei had a rough time of it after the war. He was twice the victim of
anti-Semetic purges in the 1950s, was out of work a lot of the time, and
wasn't really recognized for the work he did until shortly before his death.

Chuck Albertson
Seattle, Wash.

- ----- Original Message -----
From: "Marc James Small" <msmall@roanoke.infi.net>
To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Sent: Wednesday, March 22, 2000 11:12 AM
Subject: Re: [Leica] Berlin 1945


> At 01:29 PM 3/22/2000 -0500, Kurt Miska wrote:
> >Talk about irony. Yesterday I received the general info brochure on the
> >M6 from Leica NJ. Among some very nice photographs reproduced in this
> >lavish promo piece is the memorable Leica photo of Soviet soldiers
> >hoisting the hammer and sickle flag of the USSR over bombed out Berlin.
> >German camera used to take this sad photo.
>
> Now, that is interesting.  It was the Reichstag building, and it was a
> staged photograph.  I have a couple of right-ups on this in my military
> history files, but none that mentioned the Soviet photographer used a
> Leica.  That's the sort of detail that the Commissars would forget to
> mention ...
>
> Marc
>
> msmall@roanoke.infi.net  FAX:  +540/343-7315
> Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!
>
>