Framing the Holocaust : photographs of a mass shooting in Latvia, 1941 /

"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...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Corporate Author: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Other Authors: Hébert, Valerie, 1974- (Editor)
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: Madison, Wisconsin : The University of Wisconsin Press, published in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, [2023]
Subjects:
Description
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)
Physical Description:xix, 275 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical referenes and index.
ISBN:9780299344108
029934410X