Tony Vaccaro took over 9,000 photographs of Germany between
1944 and 1949. He served in Germany as
an infantryman until the end of the war and remained as a civilian. He pictures document some of the horror of
war; the disfigured corpses of soldiers lying where they fell, or stacked on
top of each other to be taken for burial.
But most of the book shows Germany after the war, occupied by US troops,
and starting to rebuild after terrible destruction. The towns are full of signs of the war, with so many buildings
turned to rubble. Vaccaro aimed to show
the hard truth behind the glory of war, and he succeeds.

Yet there
is a double entendre in the title Entering Germany 1944-1949, which is
brought very clearly in the many pictures of GIs with young German women and
various classes and programs aimed at raising awareness about the dangers of
VD. The later pages of this book are
full of young adults and children working and playing. Vaccaro captures people in the midst of
their activities, and one really gets a sense of energy and confidence of a
nation rising from defeat.

This is a
remarkable collection of images by a photographer who went on work for Flair
magazine, LIFE, and Look.
Even though there’s a great mixture of subjects, there are hardly any
pictures of grief, anger or regret here.
Considering the role of Germany as an conquered aggressor and then as an
occupied country, it’s amazing how much good will and optimism Vaccaro found in
those early post-war years.

© 2002 Christian Perring. First Serial Rights.

Christian Perring,
Ph.D., is Chair of the Philosophy Department at Dowling College,
Long Island. He is editor of Metapsychology Online Review.
His main research is on philosophical issues in psychiatry.
He is especially interested in exploring how philosophers can
play a greater role in public life, and he is keen to help foster
communication between philosophers, mental health professionals,
and the general public.

Categories: ArtAndPhotography