Oldal 168 [168]
166
Olli Kleemola
The Main Differences: Racial and Humorous Propaganda Photos
Soon after the beginning of their attack on the Soviet Union, the German Minister
of Propaganda demanded that the German press and propaganda troops should
create clear visual comparisons to demonstrate the superiority of their race and
lifestyle to the German people (Boelcke 1989: 183). From then on, visual com¬
parisons were an essential part of German visual propaganda. One such topic was
comparisons between Soviet and German soldiers, as shown in Figure 661.
At the top of this photo collage, you can see a German soldier with a motor¬
cycle. At the bottom, a group of soviet POWs are sitting on the ground. The collage
is by no means self-explanatory; thus, the propagandistic caption is an important
part of the desired message. Christoph Hamann states in his article about POWs
in German propaganda photography: “With another uniform, the POW, now
described as a ‘beast’ or an ‘animal’, could embody the desired characteristics of
a strong-willed German soldier” (Hamann 2003: 17-18).
Such photo collages were occasionally published in Âustrierter Beobachter
and Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung, sometimes even on the front cover (for example
Dlustrierter Beobachter, no. 52, 1942). After the German defeat at the battle of
Stalingrad, this kind of contrasting pair collage disappeared, most likely because
from that point on the Germans tried to shift the focus of their propaganda
from racial points of view to the common European battle against the Bolsheviks
(Luostarinen 1986: 403-411).
The Finnish propaganda troops and magazines studied for this chapter neither
constructed nor published such direct visual comparisons, presumably because the
tone of Finnish propaganda was not based on racial ideology, even at the beginning
of the war, as was the case in Germany; and thus the constructed image of the
enemy was not so black and white (Ibid.: 417-419).
Another speciality of German propaganda troop photographs was the so-called
Typenbilder (literally, ‘type photos’), as shown in Figure 67'?. They were significant¬
ly more common in German propaganda than the photo collages described above.
Typenbilder are mostly portrait-type photos taken at close range so that the
“racial characteristics” of their subjects would be easy to see, as in Figure 67. These
1? Explanation to the photo: Zwei Welten die ein Abgrund trennt. Willensstark, zielsicher und selbstbewusst
ist der Soldat der Deutschen Wehrmacht. Er weiss, warum er kämpft und er weiss auch, dass ihm die Heimat
alles das zur Verfügung stellt, was er für diesen Kampf benötigt. Was hat dagegen das Sowjet-Regime aus dem
russischen Volk gemacht. Unsere Soldaten begegnen beim Kampf im Osten unter den Bolschewisten Typen, die
an den Abschaum der Menschheit erinnern. Gemeine, brutale Gesichter sind es, rohe Gesellen, die zu jedem
Verbrechen geneigt sind. Sie entsprechen Danz dem Land, aus dem sie kommen, das in der Verwahrlosung und
Verelendung erstarrt ist.
‘5 Explanation to the photo: Gestalten aus dem ‘Sowjet-Paradies. In den Gefangenenlagern mehren sich jetzt
die Verbrechertypen, wie wir sie aus den schlimmsten Zeiten der ‘Kommune in Erinnerung haben. Unter den
Juden, die hier in Uniformen der Sowjet-Armee stecken, findet man zudem noch Typen, denen man ansieht,
dafs sie zwar zu allen Mordtaten fähig sind, im gegebenen Augenblich aber als Soldaten trotzdem versagen —
Rechts ein pockennarbiger Mongole, der würdig in die Reihen der Bolschewisten paßt.