Walking with <i>The Murderers Are Among Us</i>: Henry Ries’s Post-WWII Berlin Rubble Photographs

Henry Ries (1917–2004), a celebrated American-German photojournalist, was born into an upper-class Jewish family in Berlin. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1938 to escape Nazi Germany. As a new American citizen, he joined the U.S. Air Force. After the war, Ries became photo editor and chief photographe...

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Main Author: Vivien Green Fryd
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2020-07-01
Series:Arts
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0752/9/3/75
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author Vivien Green Fryd
author_facet Vivien Green Fryd
author_sort Vivien Green Fryd
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description Henry Ries (1917–2004), a celebrated American-German photojournalist, was born into an upper-class Jewish family in Berlin. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1938 to escape Nazi Germany. As a new American citizen, he joined the U.S. Air Force. After the war, Ries became photo editor and chief photographer for the <i>OMGUS Observer</i> (1946–1947), the American weekly military newspaper published by the Information and Education Section of the Office of Military Government for Germany (OMGUS). One photograph by Ries that first appeared in this newspaper in 1946, and a second, in a different composition and enlarged format, that he included in his 2001 autobiography, create significant commentaries on postwar Germany. The former image accompanies an article about the first post-WWII German feature film: Wolfgang Staudte’s <i>The Murderers Are Among Us</i>. The photograph moves from functioning as a documentation of history and collective memory, to an individual remembrance and personal condemnation of WWII horrors. Both reveal Ries’s individual trauma over the destruction of Berlin and the death of family members, while also conveying the official policy of OMGUS. Ries’s works embody a conflicted, compassionate gaze, conveying ambiguous emotions about judgment of Germans, precisely because of his own identity, background and memories.
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spelling doaj.art-0d36ed997b68405697466245070455de2023-11-20T06:01:22ZengMDPI AGArts2076-07522020-07-01937510.3390/arts9030075Walking with <i>The Murderers Are Among Us</i>: Henry Ries’s Post-WWII Berlin Rubble PhotographsVivien Green Fryd0Department of History of Art and Architecture, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37203, USAHenry Ries (1917–2004), a celebrated American-German photojournalist, was born into an upper-class Jewish family in Berlin. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1938 to escape Nazi Germany. As a new American citizen, he joined the U.S. Air Force. After the war, Ries became photo editor and chief photographer for the <i>OMGUS Observer</i> (1946–1947), the American weekly military newspaper published by the Information and Education Section of the Office of Military Government for Germany (OMGUS). One photograph by Ries that first appeared in this newspaper in 1946, and a second, in a different composition and enlarged format, that he included in his 2001 autobiography, create significant commentaries on postwar Germany. The former image accompanies an article about the first post-WWII German feature film: Wolfgang Staudte’s <i>The Murderers Are Among Us</i>. The photograph moves from functioning as a documentation of history and collective memory, to an individual remembrance and personal condemnation of WWII horrors. Both reveal Ries’s individual trauma over the destruction of Berlin and the death of family members, while also conveying the official policy of OMGUS. Ries’s works embody a conflicted, compassionate gaze, conveying ambiguous emotions about judgment of Germans, precisely because of his own identity, background and memories.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0752/9/3/75Henry Riesphotojournalismthe <i>OMGUS Observer</i>Wolfgang Staudte’s <i>Die Mörder sind unter uns</i> (<i>The Murderers Are Among Us</i>)German Trümmerfilme (rubble film)rubble photographs
spellingShingle Vivien Green Fryd
Walking with <i>The Murderers Are Among Us</i>: Henry Ries’s Post-WWII Berlin Rubble Photographs
Arts
Henry Ries
photojournalism
the <i>OMGUS Observer</i>
Wolfgang Staudte’s <i>Die Mörder sind unter uns</i> (<i>The Murderers Are Among Us</i>)
German Trümmerfilme (rubble film)
rubble photographs
title Walking with <i>The Murderers Are Among Us</i>: Henry Ries’s Post-WWII Berlin Rubble Photographs
title_full Walking with <i>The Murderers Are Among Us</i>: Henry Ries’s Post-WWII Berlin Rubble Photographs
title_fullStr Walking with <i>The Murderers Are Among Us</i>: Henry Ries’s Post-WWII Berlin Rubble Photographs
title_full_unstemmed Walking with <i>The Murderers Are Among Us</i>: Henry Ries’s Post-WWII Berlin Rubble Photographs
title_short Walking with <i>The Murderers Are Among Us</i>: Henry Ries’s Post-WWII Berlin Rubble Photographs
title_sort walking with i the murderers are among us i henry ries s post wwii berlin rubble photographs
topic Henry Ries
photojournalism
the <i>OMGUS Observer</i>
Wolfgang Staudte’s <i>Die Mörder sind unter uns</i> (<i>The Murderers Are Among Us</i>)
German Trümmerfilme (rubble film)
rubble photographs
url https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0752/9/3/75
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