The Art of

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First illustration in the brochure KZ—Bildbericht aus fünf
Konzentrationslagern, May 1945. The picture was taken by an
unknown photographer on 16 April 1945.
Photograph by Margaret Bourke-White
this demonstrative purpose. It shows
a group of American soldiers who,
hands on hips, are standing opposite
another group of people depicted
from the rear. The truck with the
dead bodies lying on top of each
other is visible in the upper half of
the image. The caption describes the
photo with the following words: “On
a tour through the Buchenwald concentration
camp, citizens of Weimar
look at one of the wagons piled high
with corpses.”
Margaret Bourke-White captured
the same situation from the opposite
vantage point. In her picture we
see an American soldier pointing to
the trailer of corpses, while a group
of civilians behind him appears to be
listening to what he says. Whereas
the image by the unknown photographer
captures the situation in
the courtyard as a confrontation between
the German population and
the American Army, Bourke-White‘s
photo creates a visual link between
the light-colored bodies of the naked
corpses at one side and the
darkly clothed observers at the other.
It becomes clear how carefully
the photographer prepared this and
other images of the liberated concentration
camp in a snapshot taken
by Colonel Parke Yingst that features
Bourke-White kneeling to measure
the in situ light conditions. Here, the trailer of bodies itself plays more of a
secondary role; its primary function is to mark the place where the photoshoot
is taking place.
In retrospect, Bourke-White described this situation in the courtyard in
front of the crematorium in Buchenwald as follows: “There was an air of unreality
about that April day in Weimar, a feeling to which I found myself stubbornly
clinging. I kept telling myself that I would believe the indescribably
05
Translated from
CORNELIA BRINK
Ikonen der Vernichtung:
Öffentlicher
Gebrauch von Fotografien
aus nationalsozialistischen
Konzentrationslagern
nach
1945, Berlin: Oldenbourg
Akademieverlag,
1989, p. 63.
From Display to Lust