THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELED.

 

“Still Lives: Jewish Photography in Nazi Germany”

Ofer Ashkenazi, Associate Professor of History, Director, Koebner-Minerva Center for German History, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Abstract:
The talk considers photographs taken by non-professional Jewish photographers under the National Socialist regime. By the early 1930s, most German-Jewish families had used pocket-sized cameras to document their experiences, from domestic routines and family vacations to political gatherings, youth movement ceremonies, sports and religious events. I argue that, gazing at a rapidly changing environment after January 1933, amateur Jewish photographers utilized their cameras to reflect on the new reality, to make sense of it, and to reclaim agency in it. My analysis of the photographs underscores their dialogue with the visual imagery of the time, in particular the photographers’ efforts to restage familiar iconography outside of its original context. The photographs, however, were normally embedded in a larger collection, an album, which narrated the documented experiences, negotiated their meanings, and sought to construct their place in the shared memory of the historical moment they recorded. My analysis therefore places individual photographs within the context in which they were displayed and by acknowledging their role in the narrative of the album. As such, these photographs provide us with a unique case of “ego documents,” which reflect on experiences close to the time of their occurrences. In contrast to other ego documents of Jews under Nazism, photographs are abundant and represent a broader variety of perspectives, including those of children, young women, orphans, or working-class families. An analysis of tens of thousands of such photographs provides us with an exceptionally rich source for the study of Jewish experiences in Nazi Germany: of the various ways Jews perceived the new reality, sought to understand it and to confront its implications.