- Summary
- "In December 1941, German police and their local collaborators shot 2,749 Jews at the beach in Šķēde, near Liepāja, Latvia. Twelve photographs were taken at the scene. These now-infamous images show people in extreme distress, sometimes without clothing. Some capture the very moments when women and children confronted their imminent deaths, while others show their dead bodies. They are nearly unbearable to look at--so why should we? Framing the Holocaust offers a multidimensional response to this question. While photographs are central to our memory of modern historical events, they often inhabit an ambivalent intellectual space. What separates the sincere desire to understand from voyeuristic curiosity? Comprehending atrocity photographs requires viewers to place themselves in the very positions of the perpetrators who took the images. When we engage with these photographs, do we risk replicating the original violence? In this tightly organized book, scholars of history, photography, language, gender, photojournalism, and pedagogy examine the images of the Šķēde atrocity along with other difficult images, giving historical, political, and ethical depth to the acts of looking and interpreting. With a foreword by Edward Anders, who narrowly escaped the December 1941 shooting, Framing the Holocaust represents an original approach to an iconic series of Holocaust photographs. This book will contribute to compelling debates in the emerging field of visual history, including the challenges and responsibilities of using photographs to teach about atrocity." (from the back cover)
- Variant Title
- Photographs of a mass shooting in Latvia, 1941
- Format
- Book
- Published
- Madison, Wisconsin : The University of Wisconsin Press, published in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, [2023]
©2023
- Locale
- Latvia
Liepāja
Lettonie
- Contents
-
Foreword / Edward Anders
Introduction : Twelve Photographs / Valerie Hébert
Not to Tiptoe Away in the Face of Suffering : Why We Look at Holocaust Photographs / Valerie Hébert
Investigating Both Sides of the Camera on the Beach at Šķēde / Daniel Newman
Reading against the Gaze : Perpetrator Motives and Subject Responses in Photographs of a Mass Shooting / Tanja Kinzel
Ordinary Acts, Extraordinary Crimes: Photographic Practice and Atrocity / Daniel Hoffman
Describing Atrocity : Soviet Words on German Perpetrator Images / Marilyn Campeau
A Day at the Beach : The Šķēde Massacre and Littoral Photography / Daniel H. Magilow
Representations of Female Bodies in Holocaust Photographs / Dorota Glowacka
A Pedagogy of Witnessing: Reading and Interpreting the Šķēde Photographs in the Classroom / Hilary Earl
Contributors
Index.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Hébert, Valerie, 1974- editor.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
- Notes
-
Includes bibliographical referenes and index.
Foreword / Edward Anders -- Introduction : Twelve Photographs / Valerie Hébert -- Not to Tiptoe Away in the Face of Suffering : Why We Look at Holocaust Photographs / Valerie Hébert -- Investigating Both Sides of the Camera on the Beach at Šķēde / Daniel Newman -- Reading against the Gaze : Perpetrator Motives and Subject Responses in Photographs of a Mass Shooting / Tanja Kinzel -- Ordinary Acts, Extraordinary Crimes: Photographic Practice and Atrocity / Daniel Hoffman -- Describing Atrocity : Soviet Words on German Perpetrator Images / Marilyn Campeau -- A Day at the Beach : The Šķēde Massacre and Littoral Photography / Daniel H. Magilow -- Representations of Female Bodies in Holocaust Photographs / Dorota Glowacka -- A Pedagogy of Witnessing: Reading and Interpreting the Šķēde Photographs in the Classroom / Hilary Earl -- Contributors -- Index.
