# Color pictures of Nazi Germany **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 17, 2009, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-pictures-of-nazi-germany/486219 "2009-02-17T02:28:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Stealth\_Potato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Stealth\_Potato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stealth_Potato)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-pictures-of-nazi-germany/486219/21 "2009-02-17T08:51:16Z")
> [@robardin](#): > > Um? Interest in Nazism is not interpreted as scholarship, at least not where I live. In case you don’t follow current events, a couple in New Jersey basically had trumped up reasons for the state to take their children from their custody because they named them after Adolph Hitler and Heinrich Himmler, and complained publicly when a bakery refused to put little Adolph’s full name on a cake. I happen to disagree strongly with that, but the fact is, overt interest in Nazism is likely to have strongly negative personal and professional repercussions. > > It is history, and I do find it interesting. But as far as giving a “NSFW” type of warning, context-free images of Nazism is much more likely to cause problems for me than simple female nudity. I personally work with more than a few Orthodox Jews. Being caught with a pic of a woman posing nude for an artist – hell, even full-on hardcore porn – would probably not generate nearly as much enmity and possible filing of “hostile work environment” proceedings as having a page full of smiling Nazis at a rally up on my computer screen. You know, I could almost see your point if you changed your desktop background to a photo of Hitler and had a little Nazi flag arrangement next to your telephone. But simply perusing interesting historical photos? Seriously? No person in possession of their mental faculties is going to assume that looking at historical photos from WWII means than the viewer is a covert (or overt) Nazi sympathizer. I have a special sore spot for this kind of reaction, since it basically represents an effort (unconscious or otherwise) to turn a blind eye to our history. Go much farther and you’d be referring to Hitler as “He Who Must Not Be Named.” 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-pictures-of-nazi-germany/486219/22 "2009-02-17T08:54:45Z")
> [@robardin](#): > > Um? Interest in Nazism is not interpreted as scholarship, at least not where I live. In case you don’t follow current events, a couple in New Jersey basically had trumped up reasons for the state to take their children from their custody because they named them after Adolph Hitler and Heinrich Himmler, and complained publicly when a bakery refused to put little Adolph’s full name on a cake. I happen to disagree strongly with that, but the fact is, overt interest in Nazism is likely to have strongly negative personal and professional repercussions. That is an incorrect version of the Little Hitler story. There were no trumped up reasons. The state received a complaint. By law they have to follow up on a complaint immediately. What they then found was enough to take the kids away. They may never have received a complaint if the father hadn’t been stupid enough to call attention to himself in the first place but that is not why they were taken away. Just reading what has come out (DYFS proceedings are confidential) shows that the reasons were at the least for neglect and alcohol abuse in the house. It may happen that they get the kids back with some conditions and monitoring or they may be cleared. But I think it is obvious that something is very wrong with that family, well beyond the kids names. As for the “at least not where I live” part. Your location field says Flushing. I live a couple of miles from the Hitler-Campbells. The Shoprite that refused the cake decoration is the one I shop at. (for clarity I am currently and temporarily thousands of miles away now but my house and family are there) ---
**Author:** ![clayton\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-pictures-of-nazi-germany/486219/23 "2009-02-17T09:22:24Z")
Who in their right mind would be sitting around on break at work near a bunch of Hasidic Jews and decide to click on the thread with the title “Color pictures of Nazi Germany”? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-pictures-of-nazi-germany/486219/24 "2009-02-17T09:26:14Z")
Looking at the first couple, I was kind of “meh”. But there’s just _so many_ of them, and so large. From the second page, especially, with all the uncaptioned street scenes and pictures of what looks like just ordinary life, I start to get an oppressive feeling, almost like I’m being sucked into that time. [This picture](http://www.fuckthemeat.com/foto2/naziincolor1/10.jpg) toward the top of the second page gave me pause. ---
**Author:** ![clayton\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-pictures-of-nazi-germany/486219/25 "2009-02-17T09:48:58Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > [This picture](http://www.fuckthemeat.com/foto2/naziincolor1/10.jpg) toward the top of the second page gave me pause. Is there any context behind that one or can anyone find any? I’m sure it is what the site implies it is, but without any context it _may_ have some legitimate (i.e. medical) reason for existence. I honestly doubt it wouldn’t be legitimate, but being true to truth (and to learn more about the practices) I’d like to see a cite. Honestly I just assumed their “medical testing” was done strapping someone down onto a board or metal table with rope.. Not the super clean sterile operating room look in that image. Interesting if there’s more context behind the legitimizing of the “research” done by dressing it all up as “medical testing”. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-pictures-of-nazi-germany/486219/26 "2009-02-17T10:02:09Z")
They all look like comedy Nazis. It’s hard to believe they took all that nonsense so deadly seriously. ---
**Author:** ![Audrey\_Levins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Audrey\_Levins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Audrey_Levins)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-pictures-of-nazi-germany/486219/27 "2009-02-17T10:04:02Z")
I’m a bit baffled by the posters who are talking about the NSFW aspect of these pictures…I dunno what they were expecting, but when I click a link that says “Color Pictures of Nazi Germany” I’m not expecting pastoral postcards. “Nazi Germany” means, IMHO, that you’re going to see armies and swastikas and, most likely, Hitler. I saw exactly what I expected. Just in color. And even in obviously faded color, these pictures make it seem closer than than it appears in the usual grainy black and white photographs. I am a black and white photographer and I cherish the film for precisely the reasons these pictures illustrate…once you add color, it makes everything look more real, more mundane, and more ordinary. And what’s more horrifying than Nazi Germany looking mundane and ordinary? ---
**Author:** ![Audrey\_Levins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Audrey\_Levins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Audrey_Levins)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 10:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-pictures-of-nazi-germany/486219/28 "2009-02-17T10:08:19Z")
And like **Koxinga** I would very much like to know the origin and purpose of the linked picture. Other than the odd waist-sized metal band around the middle of the table, it looks very much like my dentist’s/OB-GYN’s chair… So I am morbidly curious as to what went on in THAT chair. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-pictures-of-nazi-germany/486219/29 "2009-02-17T10:37:57Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > They all look like comedy Nazis. It’s hard to believe they took all that nonsense so deadly seriously. That’s what I was thinking. All those photos look like publicity stills for a 1950s Technicolour Epic entitled _Springtime for Hitler_; you have to stop and remind yourself that this was what Nazism actually looked like, and yes, people took it seriously. One of the things I’ve always found interesting about Nazi photos is that when people are giving the Nazi Salute, their arms are pretty much straight out in front of them, not at a 45 degree angle like you see in TV shows and movies. The other interesting thing is how little colour WWII stuff there is from Britain and the Empire during WWII; there’s a wee bit about but not a lot, and most of it tends to be from the RAF. There is, for example, precious little colour photography of the British/Commonwealth military in the Far Eastern Theatre (in fact, I don’t think I’ve seen a single colour photo of the campaign in the Far East), and even in places like North Africa and the Pacific Theatre there isn’t a lot of colour stuff from the British/Empire forces. I’ve always found it interesting that the US Navy recorded the Pacific Theatre in colour and the Germans went to great lengths to take lots of colour photos (and even colour newsreel film, with sound); but the British and the Russians stayed with Black & White for the most part. The Japanese, it seems, didn’t bother to film or photograph much; I wrote an article not long ago on the Arisaka Type 38 and Type 99 rifles and had a hell of a job getting photographs of Japanese soldiers with their rifles; the few pics I could find were appalling quality and in then end I think I managed to find four reasonable quality photographs of Japanese Soldiers with their rifles. I know a lot of stuff was destroyed during the later-war bombing, but I still can’t believe how few pictures of the Japanese in World War II there actually are, and of those, how few of them show any useful detail. ---
**Author:** ![clayton\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-pictures-of-nazi-germany/486219/30 "2009-02-17T10:41:57Z")
> [@Audrey\_Levins](#): > > And like **Koxinga** I would very much like to know the origin and purpose of the linked picture. Other than the odd waist-sized metal band around the middle of the table, it looks very much like my dentist’s/OB-GYN’s chair… > > So I am morbidly curious as to what went on in THAT chair. That was me (minor mistake).. Of course it was for a person.. But in what context? ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-pictures-of-nazi-germany/486219/31 "2009-02-17T14:17:59Z")
Hey, it’s [Arte Johnson!](http://www.fuckthemeat.com/foto2/naziincolor/39.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-pictures-of-nazi-germany/486219/32 "2009-02-17T15:13:26Z")
Interesting … but then again, Germany seems to have used more color film in that timeframe than we did. Although in going through my dad’s stuff, I found a spiffy color picture of the Japanese surrender from a very odd angle, printed on some sort of acrylic instead of paper. ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-pictures-of-nazi-germany/486219/33 "2009-02-17T15:30:08Z")
> [@Audrey\_Levins](#): > > And like **Koxinga** I would very much like to know the origin and purpose of the linked picture. Other than the odd waist-sized metal band around the middle of the table, it looks very much like my dentist’s/OB-GYN’s chair… > > So I am morbidly curious as to what went on in THAT chair. Would the conditions have been quite so pristine had they been using that room to operate on “undesirables”? ---
**Author:** ![clayton\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-pictures-of-nazi-germany/486219/34 "2009-02-17T16:09:33Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > Although in going through my dad’s stuff, I found a spiffy color picture of the Japanese surrender from a very odd angle, printed on some sort of acrylic instead of paper. Huh, that’d be cool to see if its not one of the famous like 3 you see everywhere. Would you mind scanning it? ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-pictures-of-nazi-germany/486219/35 "2009-02-17T16:39:53Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > That’s what I was thinking. All those photos look like publicity stills for a 1950s Technicolour Epic entitled _Springtime for Hitler_; you have to stop and remind yourself that this was what Nazism actually looked like, and yes, people took it seriously. Yeah, I was thinking how much all this stuff looks like a Hollywood movie set. But the reason it looks that way is because that’s exactly what it was. These things were stage productions. And the uniforms look like costumes because they were costumes. The flags look like cheap swastika flags because they were. And so on. And Hitler was a dork. We’re so used to imaging Hitler as some deranged inhuman monster. But he wasn’t an inhuman monster, he was a very naughty boy. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelQReilly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@MichaelQReilly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelQReilly)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-pictures-of-nazi-germany/486219/36 "2009-02-17T17:39:54Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > Looking at the first couple, I was kind of “meh”. But there’s just _so many_ of them, and so large. From the second page, especially, with all the uncaptioned street scenes and pictures of what looks like just ordinary life, I start to get an oppressive feeling, almost like I’m being sucked into that time. > > [This picture](http://www.fuckthemeat.com/foto2/naziincolor1/10.jpg) toward the top of the second page gave me pause. I know exactly what you are saying. I think its because everything looks so alive in the pictures, yet just about everyone in them is dead and gone. Hell, I bet that even a lot of the buildings in the pictures are long since no more than piles of rubble. Nobody is crying over them because they are the frickin’ Nazis, but there is something haunting about seeing up-close an entire world that’s nothing but memory. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelQReilly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@MichaelQReilly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelQReilly)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-pictures-of-nazi-germany/486219/37 "2009-02-17T17:43:55Z")
And btw, I know that it got discredited because of its practitioners, but Nazi architecture was pretty damn good, imho. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-pictures-of-nazi-germany/486219/38 "2009-02-17T17:47:46Z")
> [@Nanoda](#): > > There’s two, one about 1/2 way down of people lining a road, and another of a stadium that just show an _incomprehensible_ number of people. Hitler must have been, like, 3 Obamas. Obama doesn’t have people arrested and/or shot for failures of enthusiastic attendance (yet). ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-pictures-of-nazi-germany/486219/39 "2009-02-17T18:23:16Z")
My computer is a piece of crap, and that link locked it up sumpin’ fierce! ---
**Author:** ![Illuminatiprimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/illuminatiprimus/32/11520_2.png) [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-pictures-of-nazi-germany/486219/40 "2009-02-17T18:26:57Z")
Say what you like about those Nazis - they knew how to do parades. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-pictures-of-nazi-germany/486219.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-pictures-of-nazi-germany/486219.md?page=3)