ALBUM OF THE DAMNED: SNAPSHOTS FROM THE THIRD REICH (ISBN 0897335767)

Candid photos of the Third Reich:
This is basically a photo book containing many candid photos taken by causal German photographers during the period of the Third Reich and World War II. Accompanied with the photos are comments written by the author regarding the significance of each photo in relation to what is going on. The book is pretty well put together and the causal photos are quite interesting because they are so causal. There are wedding photos here, family photos of their sons, daughters, wife or even their mothers, group photos of soldiers at battle sites or famous landmarks, photos of soldiers having fun or play acting and that sort of thing. Some of the photos almost looks like vacation photography! In fact, many of the causal photos you see in this book may be found in your albums or within your own photo collections. Perhaps, that is the point the author is trying to make here. Many of the people represented in this book in their causal mode, are all members of the Third Reich and many of them took part of the massive Holocaust that killed millions. They took photos of themselves, of their victims or victims to be in a very holiday like atmosphere as they are presented here in this book. This should be an pretty interesting book to anyone interested in World War II photography. There is really nothing truly brutal here outside of small numbers of photographs that reflects on death in a very causal but realistic matter. Its that casual matter that these photographs revealed, is the true essence of this book.

guilt trip:
The concept for Album of the Damned has been the subject of social-psychological studies for some time: nice, normal people do horrible things. Research papers use the words evil, dehumanization, disengagement, altered responsibility to describe and define such behavior. (V. Bernard, et al, (1965) Dehumanization: A Composite Psychological Defense, and others) In Album of the Damned normal people are shown in casual, candid photos at holidays, various life events, casual fun with family and friends. Meanwhile former neighbors and friends were hauled off to concentration camps or raped, humiliated and tortured for sport - we don't see these pictures. "Normal" Germans let it happen and even participated in the ethnic cleansing that resulted in thousands of clergy and more than 6 million other "normal" people dying in horrible conditions. This lays a terrific guilt trip on the reader - and surely it is meant to do just that. There is a perhaps unintended irony in that many of the soldiers pictured in happy settings were, by virtue of their collar insignia, regular army (Heer) destined to become cannon fodder fighting the Russians. So we see few of the actual perpetrators of the roundups and medical experiments, or of the death camp guards and commanders - those of the Allgemeine SS with runes as their collar insignia and the totenkopf (skull) on their hats. The author's commentary, sardonic and accusatory as it is, paints with a very broad brush: the laughing Germans pictured here are bad, all bad. For sheer emotional impact this book makes you cry and wonder how close to madness "normal" can become during wartime. For clearly delineated guilt in German participation in the madness of the times leading up to, and during, World War II this is not the book. For a rehash of the Nuremberg Trials this is not the book. For a horrific guilt trip this is the book. But there is a greater question the author seems to ignore: What deterrents can society put in place to stop people from disengaging from reality, from accepting evil as the statue quo?

Loved it!:
When I first saw an ad for "Album of the Damned..." I immediately went to Amazon to order it. I was very excited to receive the book and I must say that I was not able to put it down until I finished it. I must also add that I've actually gone through it several times afterward. As an Historian for self interest, this book is highly recommeded. The book contains "collections" of photographs mostly from Germany before and during WWII. The author also explains a brief summary of what what was going on at the time and explanations of certain aspects of the War. 5 out of 5 stars! I hope the Author Paul Garson is working on another!