I recently undertook a class trip to the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC to examine how the museum tells the story of the Holocaust. What struck me most was the way the museum used photographs to convey the horrors of the Holocaust to visitors. Walking through the exhibition, I was confronted continuously with close-up, small portrait photographs of the faces of holocaust victims, generally placed at eye-level so as to force a realization of the human face of the Holocaust. This pictorial narration of the human face of the holocaust is punctured throughout by large, striking photographs which illustrate the ‘other side’ of the Holocaust : the Nazi state machinery, soldiers, rallies and propaganda. These large photographs dominate their allocated exhibition space, and their very size represents a psychical metaphor for the sheer dominance and power of the Nazi regime. Thus, the placement and the exhibition of photographs in the museum conveys both the story of the victims and the perpetrators, the human and the inhumane, in a way that generates both an increased empathy, and crucially an increased understanding, of the Holocaust.
In the main walkway of the first floor, a small photograph of a Czechoslovakian Jew, surrounded by Nazi soldiers cutting of his beard, is displayed prominently at head height to capture visitor’s attention. The photo is accompanied by a brief label identifying the date and location of the photograph. Although the text does not ascribe a name to the Jewish man, the picture itself gives him an identity through his emotional connection with the viewer. Staring into the camera, and, consequently, into the viewers eyes, he projects a haunting dejection underlined by a sense of burning humiliation, a deep anger concealed by his passive body language. Indeed, the portrayal of this cruelty depicts the extent to which Jews were dehumanized by the Nazis, with the cutting of his beard serving as a metaphor for how Jews were collectively stripped of their humanity and individual identity. The small-size of the photograph is incongruous with the scale of the misery depicted, suggesting to viewers that this single portrayal of pain is but one instance in a vast ocean of human suffering that the Holocaust created.
On the second floor, a large photograph, spread across a wall to capture viewers attention, depicts a group of Hungarian Jews, with accompanying text explaining they have just disembarked from the train at Auschwitz. The faces of the group convey a range of emotions, one child with an impish grin poignantly illustrating a childish ignorance which contrasts with the harrowing dejection etched onto the faces of the elderly women in the photograph, conveying the terrible realization of the their impending deaths. This depiction of a range of emotions within a group manages to convey a sense of both the individual and collective suffering of the holocaust. Further down the corridor, a video exhibition explains one woman in the photo is carrying her daughter’s child to save her daughters life, having learnt that women carrying babies are immediately sent to the gas chambers. The explanation of this one story within the photograph emphasizes to viewers the significance of each photograph in the exhibition, with each one representing an individual story, a life captured and summarized in one single shot.
In the first corridor of the museum which commences the exhibition, two large, prominent photographs stand out in the display. The first shows Hitler shaking the hand of Paul von Hindenburg, President of Germany, on the 21st March 1933, two days before the Enabling Act transformed Germany into a de facto dictatorship. The handshake represents the physical embodiment of the moment of Germany’s transition from democracy to dictatorship. The tacit approval of the President of Germany and the willing transfer of power depicted in the photograph illustrate the guise of legitimacy under which the Nazis rose to power and serves to remind visitors of the fragile nature of democracy. This image contrasts sharply with the next large photograph portraying a Nazi SS auxiliary aside German police officer with a fearsome dog, striding forcefully through the street. This image portrays the rapid transformation of Germany into a police state under the Nazis, the positioning of the men conveying the collusion established between the party and the police that served as a platform for the ensuing campaign of state-sponsored violence against opponents of the regime.
