RE: [Leica] Strategic area bombing of Germany - Operation Gomorrah - photographs

[Tim Atherton <tim@KairosPhoto.com>]

Thanks Slobodan,

You'd probably find Sebalds book interesting from your comments (at one
point he says something similar to your comment below). Sebald was born in
the Allgau the very end of the war, lived most of his working life in
Britain where he taught and wrote (the most stunning novels - if I could
photograph in a way similar to how he writes in say "Austerlitz" I would be
very happy!) and died in a tragic accident last year just as his work was
becoming more widely know.

It's also interesting to e how much strong opposition in England there was
to the area bombing, and also how it basically failed (and it was known to
be so fairly early on) in two of it's main aims of seriously damaging German
production and demoralizing the civilian population - but the campaign
continued anyway. Sebald also argues that in some ways the post war effect
was that it provided a sort of hidden, unspoken background drive in the
German people to rebuilt and re-establish Germany to a leading role and
economic base in Europe.

I'll have to hunt down some of the Bischoff stuff (but he was Swiss wasn't
he?) - as well as some by George Rodger - but all outsiders, the same as the
writing. I have a vague memory that Sander took some photographs of this -
anyone?

tim



> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> [mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us]On Behalf Of Slobodan
> Dimitrov
> Sent: Friday, August 01, 2003 3:27 PM
> To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> Subject: Re: [Leica] Strategic area bombing of Germany - Operation
> Gomorrah - photographs
>
>
> Werner Bischof is the first name to come to mind. A series of
> images called
> 'After The War' are published by the Smithsonian. It's just a
> small part of
> his wider work.
> I believe LIFE also covered the after effect on the Germans in a series of
> photo essays. They also covered the plight of the Volk-Deutch . Their
> collaboration with the occupying German forces and administration forced
> their retreat into the currently bordered German nation.
> Just because Germans aren't talking about it doesn't they are not brooding
> over it. They do talk about those matters within the family, and harbor a
> great deal of anger.
> An anger, not too dissimilar from Arminius', that one day will stab us in
> the back.
> Slobodan Dimitrov
>
>
> ----------
> >From: Tim Atherton <tim@KairosPhoto.com>
> >To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> >Subject: [Leica] Strategic area bombing of Germany - Operation Gomorrah -
> photographs
> >Date: Fri, Aug 1, 2003, 1:25 PM
> >
>
> > I have just been reading W.G. Sebalds essays "On the Natural History of
> > Destruction" about the Allied strategic area-bombing campaign
> undertaken in
> > order to destroy German cities during WWII - in part known as Operation
> > Gomorrah. During the campaign, from 1942 onwards to the end of
> the war 131
> > German towns and cities were targeted, with 600,000 German
> civilian dead and
> > seven and a half million left homeless and displaced.
> >
> > The devastation and impact were immense. What Sebald examines
> is the almost
> > complete lack (with only very few exceptions) of any kind of serious, in
> > depth contemporaneous writing (fiction or non-fiction) within
> Germany about
> > these events, either from during the period 1942-45 or in the immediate
> > psot-war period. He bleieved that given the astonishing scope of the
> > devestation there was in fact a sort of collective denial within Germany
> > about the experience, and ominous silence that has left a large
> gap in the
> > cultural memory.
> >
> > My question is this: is anyone aware of any in depth photogrpahic work
> > examining and or recording/documenting this overwhelmingly massive
> > destruction and loss of civilian life - especially German work
> (I imagine
> > there is a certain amount of post-war allied photography, as there is a
> > small amount of writing on the subject).
> >
> > Sebald goes on to argue that the experience of these events
> obviously had a
> > huge effect on the collective German post-war psyche - but the
> overwhelming
> > silence about the events has had an equally profound effect. (These city
> > ruins lasted for some good period of time after the war, despite
> > reconstruction.)
> >
> > I found it intriguing reading what he has to say about the
> written record
> > (or lack thereof) and that naturally led me to think about the
> photographic
> > record.
> >
> > tim a
> >
> > --
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