During World War II, around 700,000 residents of Warsaw lost their lives. Almost the whole Jewish population was murdered. By 1945, Warsaw had become a ruined and almost deserted city. The photographs on show come from observations through the “Enemy's Viewfinder”, that is, through the lenses of the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS. propaganda agencies.
A propagandist perspective of the occupied city and its inhabitants is shown through the lenses of German war reporters: the September campaign, the destruction, the repression of the population of Warsaw , everyday life in the occupied city and in the Warsaw Ghetto up until its destruction after the Ghetto Uprising (April-Mai 1943), and finally the Warsaw Uprising (August-October 1944) and the total ruination of the city between October 1944 and January 1945.
To commemorate the 70th anniversary of the German invasion of Poland, the bilingual traveling exhibition was shown at the Herder Institute in the fall of 2009, having previously been on display only in Warsaw, Berlin, and Koblenz. An academic colloquium was held to mark the opening of the exhibition.
Prof. Dr. Peter Haslinger during the exhibition opening at the Herder Institute in 2009. Wolfgang Schekanski / Herder-Institut für historische Ostmitteleuropaforschung – Institut der Leibniz-Gemeinschaft, Free access - no reuse
Prof. Eugeniusz Cezary Król during the exhibition opening at the Herder Institute in 2009. Wolfgang Schekanski / Herder-Institut für historische Ostmitteleuropaforschung – Institut der Leibniz-Gemeinschaft, Free access - no reuse
Visitors to the exhibition at the Herder Institute 2009. Wolfgang Schekanski / Herder-Institut für historische Ostmitteleuropaforschung – Institut der Leibniz-Gemeinschaft, Free access - no reuse
Accompanying the exhibition, a comprehensive, richly illustrated catalog with texts by Polish and German scholars was published:
Danuta Jackiewicz and Eugeniusz Cezary Król (eds.), Im Objektiv des Feindes. Die deutschen Bildberichterstatter im besetzten Warschau (1939–1945) [Through the Enemy's Lens: German Photojournalists in Occupied Warsaw (1939–1945)], Warsaw 2009, Rytm Publishing House/House of Encounters with History, approx. 400 pages.
Danuta Jackiewicz and Eugeniusz Cezary Król (eds.), Im Objektiv des Feindes. Die deutschen Bildberichterstatter im besetzten Warschau (1939–1945) [Through the Enemy's Lens: German Photojournalists in Occupied Warsaw (1939–1945)], Warsaw 2009, Rytm Publishing House/House of Encounters with History, approx. 400 pages.
An exhibition by the House of Encounters with History in Warsaw (cultural institution of the City of Warsaw) in cooperation with the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Herder Institute in Marburg, the Federal Archives in Koblenz, and the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation with the bpk photo agency and the Museum of European Cultures - National Museums in Berlin as part of the Federal Program of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. Under the patronage of the Mayor of Warsaw and the Governing Mayor of Berlin.
In the Enemy's Viewfinder. Poster for the presentation of the exhibition at the Herder Institute in 2009. Herder-Institut für historische Ostmitteleuropaforschung, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Prof. Dr. Peter Haslinger during the exhibition opening at the Herder Institute in 2009. Wolfgang Schekanski / Herder-Institut für historische Ostmitteleuropaforschung – Institut der Leibniz-Gemeinschaft, Free access - no reuse
Prof. Eugeniusz Cezary Król during the exhibition opening at the Herder Institute in 2009. Wolfgang Schekanski / Herder-Institut für historische Ostmitteleuropaforschung – Institut der Leibniz-Gemeinschaft, Free access - no reuse
Visitors to the exhibition at the Herder Institute 2009. Wolfgang Schekanski / Herder-Institut für historische Ostmitteleuropaforschung – Institut der Leibniz-Gemeinschaft, Free access - no reuse
In the Enemy's Viewfinder. Poster for the presentation of the exhibition at the Herder Institute in 2009. Herder-Institut für historische Ostmitteleuropaforschung, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
A PK photojournalist, sergeant in the Luftwaffe, equipped with a Leica III camera with telephoto lens, 1939/44. Foto: N.N. / Foto: Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-2007-0196, Free access - no reuse
