Today's mystery object

[dochermes]

Comments

[m_faustus]

Oh, man. I didn't need this one.

[dochermes]

Yeah, on second thought, this is not really consistent with the general light-hearted tone of Retro-Scans. Maybe I should have skipped this photo.

[full_metal_ox]

...I have a horrible misgiving that family members of another of my LJ correspondents may be represented here--and not among the soldiers.

[dochermes]

I've read that Eisenhower ordered as much newsreel footage and photos taken as possible of the camps, to document it so thoroughly that it could not be denied a generation later.

[moon_custafer]

I've also heard they talked to notable filmmakers of the time, including Welles, asking "how do we film this so people will know it's not famed?" Long shots and long takes.

There's a documentary on a Hollywood cinematographer who took colour footage of the war, including, eventually, the liberation of the camps. I was able to sit through that part once, but I couldn't watch anything that came after it. As with this photo, it takes at least thirty seconds to get your head around what you're looking at, because it's (hopefully) so outside your normal experience.

[dochermes]

When I was younger, this sort of subject matter in photographs didn't bother me. In fact, there was a sort of "whoa, gross" fascination. But by this point in my life, the reality of war and genocide has completely sunk in.

I've read a little about the Japanese "medical experiments" of Camp 731 or whatever it was, but I have absolutely no desire to see documentaries about it or what the Japanese did to Nanking. Just the plain written record is enough for me.

[pronker]

Ghastly.

[dochermes]

From now on, I'll stick to lighter photos.