This is a collection of photographs taken by British photographers in Germany between 1944-1952 and looks at Germany’s defeat and the aftermath in the country right after World War II. As the British army moved through Germany’s devastated landscape, they documented the defeated army and civilians they encountered. The many photos of lines of German prisoners of war show the reality and misery of defeat and the end of the line of the Hitler myth. There is a segment showing the conditions at the Belsen death camp, with pictures of the survivors and grisly line-up photos of the S.S. camp guards. The conditions after the camp was liberated showing delousing procedures, people scrambling for cigarettes, the boots of the dead being used as fuel for cooking and prisoners being buried are dramatically depicted. Also, photos show the destruction left after the war’s aftermath with many pictures of decimated German cities like Bremen and Berlin and the mass migrations of people just trying to survive in the bombed-out landscapes. MC

Publisher: Dirk Nishen
Paperback: 127 pages
Illustrated