Looking that those pictures sent a chill down my back.
Interesting how half the people looking at the pics are getting shivers down the spine from them, and the other half expect Hitler and Goering to suddenly don top hats and canes and perform a Busby Berkeley song-and-dance number…
Everybody talked about the Nazi super soliders. If they were that smart, why did they have to put This end up on their uniforms?
Keen eye there, brossa, I’d overlooked that entirely.
I do keep noticing little things. Look at this guy sitting on the curb giving the Hitler salute while everyone else is standing up (except for what I assume is a row of VIPs). While everyone else is so rigidly at attention, he’s all like, “yo, Hitler dude, heil.”
The wife’s idiot nephew, in his 20s now, has long been a Nazi Germany supporter. Really. The reason: The spiffy uniforms. (Thailand sort of sat out the war, and many Thais have no idea what the issues were, let alone who won or lost. They just know that Japan lost.)
I found that one very odd too. I stared at it for quite a while. I did spot some other women sitting in the crowd. But at first glance it looks like all men and then her. It also seemed like the picture could have been taken by her husband/friend. Maybe that is why she is standing and staring right into the camera.
Geez, I can’t stop. Look at Hitler’s neck. Look at that tan line just above his collar. I doubt if you’d notice it in a black and white photo. One of the little things that draws you in and makes you realize you’re looking at real people.
I was disappointed. The Third Reich was much more stylish in black and white. (Besides, we all know that everything before the year 1960 really happened in black and white.)
Valete,
Vox Imperatoris
Thailand was a Japanese Ally during World War II (Thailand declared War on the UK and US 25/01/1942; although they were bascially forced to do so by Japan), which means that Thailand also “lost” the Second World War, technically speaking.
Having said that, there was also a very sizeable anti-Japanese Guerilla force (the Seri Thai) that operated with tacit approval of a lot of Highly Placed People in Thailand (and the general public, of course) at the time.
Most people accept that Thailand only got involved in World War II because Japan made them, so that’s why you don’t see them included in the “Axis” category very often; ditto places like Romania and Bulgaria that sort of got conned into it as well.
“Friedrich, mein liebchen, you forgot your lunch!”
“Aww, mom!”
Such cruel expressions on many of the faces. Like you see in a film but real.
There’s one with Hitler giving a speech and Himmler standing nearby, unamused, staring around, watching for dissent.
I’ve never been able make WWII seem anything but surreal, myself. By the end, some seventy million people had died. How do you make the death of seventy million people over six years seem anything but almost comically absurd?
Also, it’s obviously hard to judge objectively, since most people have a fairly deeply ingrained reaction to swastikas, but damn did the Nazis develop amazing symbolism. The swastika and eagle just scream that you are about to get run the hell over by an unstoppable force.
I’m having a different reaction than others seem to be having. I see the photos as depicting a time where the German people were finally coming alive after years of hardship. Before they plunged the world into war, the German people seemed happy, unified, and proud for the first time in years.
As Shirley Ujest mentioned, the guy has more pics (his Vietnam pics are interesting too). Check out these pics, which feature combat photos (though this pic looks more like an execution).
True, there was the Versailles treaty and the weaknessess of the Weimar republic, the stagnation of the German system and the horrific deflation of the Mark, amongst other things.
But I think we can put a fair amount of the blame on Hitler himself - the charismatic leader who was perhaps just a bit too overanxious to launch wars aboad and wipe out the jews internally in the mistaken belief that that was the answer to all Germany’s woes.
I think it would have all panned out a bit different without adolf in charge so he was definitely a relevant factor.
My point was that Germany at the time was already a right-leaning country, and Hitler didn’t exactly single handedly drag it away from a liberal position. The principles of the Weimar Republic and the peace treaty were despised by the majority of the population, and the apparatus of state in the form of the judiciary/government/military didn’t change all that much in Hitler’s ascent.
By the time he was in power, certainly there was some vary drastic restructuring to make sure that Nazi supporters were in positions of power, but people were joining the Nazi party initially because it resonated with what they wanted to hear. Hitler was a populist first and dictator second. By the people time realised what a roller coaster they were on it was too late.
I also found amusing the picture of big H giving a speech with some honcho besides, sporting a pair of big binoculars. In those huge rallies is hard to check every attendee for sufficient levels of enthusiasm with your bare eyes, you know?.
It is still at my mum’s house, we should be headed up there in a week or so, Ill grab it and bring it home and see if I can figure out how to get it scanned=)
What I find interesting about it is my dad was a photography buff, and I am thinking he must have known one of the staff photographers. Im actually amazed that it lived through the house fire, they lost a lot of stuff [including several boxes of his own ww2 photographs, documenting his trip across France and along the Ruhr Valley in Germany.]
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From Sophie’s Choice. One of the most intense scenes. Ever.
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If there’s a right way to do it these people did.
(90s British SitCom called “Heil Honey, I’m Home!”)
Anyone else notice that, in that shot where Hitler is standing up in the car, he looks like he’s wearing Depends under his trousers?