Friday, March 2, 2012

The German American Collection, The Album 9
















Every time I see a photograph of a German child from between the wars, I can't help but wonder what happened to them. And by that, I don't just wonder about whether they survived, or not. If this picture was taken in the early twenties, then this little boy would have been the right age for Hitler Youth and then the army. He would have also been the right age to have made choices, rather than being a blind follower, unaware of any reality beyond National Socialism. Was he enthusiastic? Was he a doubter? Did he resist? Of course, this album was purchased from a dealer in the United States. With any luck, he spent most of his childhood in New York, voted for Franklin Roosevelt, helped liberate Europe, and spent the post war years in a suburb, living a nice middle class life.




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