Aushwitz through the lens of the SS

[timetraveller]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USqiV7phxjc

From the US HM MUSEUM


Some of the pics in the video have been published in the press , Far as I can tell this is the only segement of the programme on YT does anyone know if the full programme is available to view on the Net ??

[Toddy1]

That's pretty cool footage, right or wrong what the cause is, I love old military photos in Black and White. There is so much emotion in these pictures. I have some great ones of from the Civil war and especially of the ordianary soldiers, imagining what became of them, wondering what they felt, the eyes can tell a hell of a lot.

I don't agree with the statements about them "having a fun time, knowing what went on there" looking like they had fun....what the hell are you supposed to do in photographs? ridiculous arguments.

[skyeye]

The dichotomy between evil and seemingly normal behavior in the same individual is always amazing. And chilling.

[Toddy1]

It's a photograph though, humans have been pre programmed to smile and look happy since they were first introduced, so I dont think too much can be read into it?

[dave81]

^^Not really. You ever seen old black and white portraits from the 1800s til the early part of the 1900s? Nobody ever smiled in them. They all posed like zombies and had the most serious expressions on their faces, even the children.

[Toddy1]

^^ agreed but that was 130 years prior to WWII, all propaganda from the war was to project an illusion of constant happiness regardless of the circumstances.

[PrinzEugen]

Thanks for the link TT. I visited Auschwitz a couple of years ago and would of loved to have had some period photos like this with me.

[nemowork]

^^Not really. You ever seen old black and white portraits from the 1800s til the early part of the 1900s? Nobody ever smiled in them. They all posed like zombies and had the most serious expressions on their faces, even the children.

Because

A/ Photographs were expensive and the family had to put on its best respectable going to church expression for their one attempt. In extreme cases photographers had iron frames the victim..sorry, client could be clamped in to keep them still for the duration.

B/ Long exposure times, you try holding a smile for 5 minutes without blinking, twitching or otherwise ruining an expensive photo. Thats why most photos before 1900 are either posed in the studio or of dead guys and equipment, they dont move.

[Sada]

^^Not really. You ever seen old black and white portraits from the 1800s til the early part of the 1900s? Nobody ever smiled in them. They all posed like zombies and had the most serious expressions on their faces, even the children.
Taking pictures back them was a slow process, they should remain quiet and firm if they didn´t want to be blurred in the paper, and it was a bit expensive thing for ordinary people, not a thing you did for fun but for sending the picture to your parents abroad and showing them you looked like was earning a fortune, pictures of dead relatives...

[nemowork]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USqiV7phxjc

From the US HM MUSEUM


Some of the pics in the video have been published in the press , Far as I can tell this is the only segement of the programme on YT does anyone know if the full programme is available to view on the Net ??

Oh and i'm assuming from the Iron Maiden cover your in the UK? The original programme is 'NAZI SCRAPBOOKS: THE AUSCHWITZ ALBUMS 'and its shown on the National Geographic channel fairly regularly http://www.ngcafrica.co.za/programmes/nazi-scrapbooks

I cant see any youtube links under that name though

[Hollis]

Films using glass plates where slow, but by the 1930's high speed film was available. 35 and 120 Film was used . So no one needed to hold still for 5 minutes.

a hint;


1936 - Kodak introduced a new home movie camera - the 16 mm Magazine CINE-KODAK Camera - that used film in magazines instead of rolls. A year later, Kodak introduced its first 16 mm sound-on-film projector, the Sound KODASCOPE Special Projector.

[dave81]

Folks, I know why people didn't smile back in the early days of photography. I was specifically citing Toddy's post here:
It's a photograph though, humans have been pre programmed to smile and look happy since they were first introduced, so I dont think too much can be read into it?
He was saying that people smiled for pictures ever since they were introduced. I was just saying that smiling in pictures didn't happen until decades later.

[Toddy1]

Folks, I know why people didn't smile back in the early days of photography. I was specifically citing Toddy's post here:
He was saying that people smiled for pictures ever since they were introduced. I was just saying that smiling in pictures didn't happen until decades later.

Hey Dave I see where you are coming from and I should not have been so flipant in my post, I know that day dot photographs were stock standard non smiling affairs, the American Civil War is a prime example such as Matthew Brady, Alexander Gardner etc as is the Crimean war. I apologise, I was in fact referring to the photographs from Auschwitz that the origianl post referenced and the fact that if they were not smiling in SS photogrpahs they would probably have been hauled off by the Gestapo for imprinting.

[Hollis]

Example of more photo graphs of the time, also used in the introduction to this thread.

http://www1.yadvashem.org/exhibitions/album_Auschwitz/mutimedia/index.HTML

[Toddy1]

Nice Hollis