Still lives : Jewish photography in Nazi Germany / Ofer Ashkenazi [and three others].

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ashkenazi, Ofer, author.

Series:

Jewish culture and contexts.

Jewish Culture and Contexts Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

National socialism.

Jewish photographers.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (369 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2025]

Summary:

How German Jews used photographs to document their experiences in the face of National SocialismStill Lives is a systematic study of the ways Jews used photographs to document their experiences in the face of National Socialism. In a time of intensifying anti-Jewish rhetoric and policies, German Jews documented their lives and their environment in tens of thousands of photographs. German Jews of considerably diverse backgrounds took and preserved these photographs: professional and amateurs, of different ages, gender, and classes. The book argues that their previously overlooked photographs convey otherwise unuttered views, emotions, and self-perceptions. Based on a database of more than fifteen thousand relevant images, it analyzes photographs within the historical contexts of their production, preservation, and intended viewing, and explores a plethora of Jews’ reactions to the changing landscapes of post-1933 Germany. Here, the authors claim that these reactions complement, complicate, and, sometimes, undermine the contents of contemporaneous written sources.Still Lives develops a new methodology for historians to use while reading and analyzing photographs, and shows how one can highlight an image’s role in a narrative that comments on, and assigns meaning to, the reality it documents. In times of radical uncertainty, numerous German Jews used photography to communicate their intricate, confused, and conflicting expectations, fears, and beliefs. Through careful analysis of these photographs, this book lays the foundations for a new history of the German-Jewish experience during the National Socialist years.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Introduction. Jewish Photography in an Age of Extreme Uncertainty

PART I. PHOTOGRAPHY AND THE GERMAN-JEWISH EXPERIENCE

Chapter 1. Documenting, Exhibiting, and Contemplating Jewishness: A Brief History of German-Jewish Photography

Chapter 2. Reading Photographs of Jews in Nazi Germany: Functions, Compositions, Meanings

PART II. THE PHOTOGRAPHIC ENCODING OF GERMAN-JEWISH LIVES

Chapter 3. A Site of Comfort and Defiance: Photographs of the Jewish Home in Nazi Germany

Chapter 4. Estranged Homeland: Exploring the Newly Nazified Landscapes

Chapter 5. Probing the Binaries of the German-Jewish Experience: The Photographed “Jewish Spaces” of the Third Reich

PART III. INCONCLUSIVE STORIES: JEWS’ VISUAL NARRATIVES IN THE FACE OF NAZISM

Chapter 6. With a Wink and a Nod: Arthur Freund’s Family Album as a Site of Memory and Its Deconstruction

Chapter 7. The Elusive Storyteller: The Two Narrators of Marianne Holländer’s Schooldays Album

Chapter 8. Abstractions as Pathos: Narrating Martha Maas’s (Fantasy of) Success in Nazi Berlin

Chapter 9. Montage Storytelling: Ambivalent Reflections on Jewishness and Emigration

Chapter 10. Departure, Finitude, and (Post-)Memories: Last Photos from Germany

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Acknowledgments

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

Other Format:

Print version: Ashkenazi, Ofer Still Lives

ISBN:

9781512826364

OCLC:

1446132513