Oldal 62 [62]
60
Dagnostaw Demski
Withdrawal of the defending troops is also the object of photography
(Figs 21, 22 and 23), as an aspect of the same process of ‘replacing old order’. In
Figure 21 Polish soldiers leave Nowy Swiat Street in Warsaw after the capitulation
of September 1939. The next image belongs to the same category: weapons are
left around the statue of Kiliriski by the troops defending Warsaw, 1939 (Fig. 22).
The last example depicts soldiers on their way to captivity after leaving weapons,
1939/44 (Fig. 23). It appears to me that there is nothing false in these images—
they are not staged. The former order is represented in the form of relinquished
hopes.
New order was presented in various manners. Such images usually depict the
siege of a town, a victory, the acts of establishing the new order. They are accom¬
panied by signs of triumph but also those of subordination and submission. The
images showing how the symbols of former order and state are destroyed constitute
an iconoclastic attack, stating that these symbols were only false idols. There are
many examples of welcoming gates erected on such occasions. There is a photo
in the archive"! that presents such a gate, erected in Wiodawa on the Bug river. It
dates to the autumn of 1939, when German and Russian armies established a joint
border. Nazi symbols are visible next to Soviet ones: the Swastika next to the ham¬
mer and sickle. It is possible to treat this picture as an icon of triumph, featuring
the symbols of the new order.
A group of armed soldiers is depicted in the next image, as if to stress that they
will guarantee and protect the new order. Another type of image belonging to the
same category of securing a new power balance and enhancing a new hierarchy
depicts scenes from daily life after the frontline had moved towards the east. In one
example, German soldiers and a shoeshine boy are photographed against a major
church.
First of all the images meant to demonstrate that the local disturbances were
insignificant. The iconoclastic rupture perpetuated by soldiers taking photos on the
streets of Warsaw seemed to convey the impression that the situation was under
control. Secondly, the main square or street belongs to the category of public places,
and as such, places which are special within the local topography. The events that
occur there have public dimension and are significant for the whole community;
it is possible to posit that they carry a ‘state-related’, official character. Usually, the
most important local authority buildings and offices are located there, but they are
also the places where one can find historical symbols of power, of the former order.
Monuments of figures significant for self-determination and historical conscious¬
ness are usually erected in similar locations (see Czarnecka, this volume). From the
iconoclastic perspective this is also a gesture of exercising control. Such a photo,
depicting the victory of the new rule over the former one, emphasises a new status
quo, and in this way breaks the power of belief in the old values.
!! "There are some images that due to copyright issues could not be printed in this volume.