WWII Snapshots - Moments in Time

[Hamilton_Honey]

I love all these pics, both German and American. Fascinating stuff!

What's really unfortunate is when you find pictures like these in antique stores, etc. So sad that no one in the family wanted them or no one is left from the family to give them a home.

I completely agree! I found my photos in the antique shop and had to give them a home - I have albums I'm filling with pictures of people I don't know. Silly? Maybe. I make no apologies, though.

I'm very glad to see others sharing their photos too - it's all about the "moment in time" to me rather than any politics.

 

[zaika]

i found a shop the other day that had big file cabinets full of photos. they marked it "purchase your relatives." or something like that. lol

i don't think it's silly, hamilton honey, to have albums full of photos of people you don't know. in time, you probably come to know them. or versions of them. i'd do it, but i have too many photos of my own family to organize and put into photo albums. see my thread here for the latest of my projects. i'm not even a quarter of the way through...

 

[Story]

This thread reminds me of that song

Images of sorrow, pictures of delight
Things that go to make up a life
Endless days of summer longer nights of gloom
Waiting for the morning light
Scenes of unimportance, photos in a frame
Things that go to make up a life

 

[pamina]

i also love to look at pictures from other people =)
when we've got projects at school to collect money or something like that, i always want to do it. because when you're standing in the door you can see some pictures =) i always imagine who the people are =)

 

[Spitfire]

Many years ago my wife and I were looking for a house to buy, so we were into a lot of homes. And seeing at a lot of pictures: families, wedding, portraits etc.
I remember one house. An old one. My guesse is, build in the 20s.
There were many ordinary photos everywhere. A sepiatoned weddingpicture, colour snapshots of the husband in the garden with their dog - a boxer.
Familyportraits etc. It was obvious that it was an old couple who lived there - or maybe just one of them.
My big - shock is too strong a word - but surpise came when we entered the bedroom. In there were two black and white portraits. Professional ones. One of the woman in the house. Very young and very beautifull and one of the husband. Young and in german wehrmacht officers uniform.
That really made me wonder about the story behind.
Was she danish and they had met during the nazi occupation of Denmark?
Or were they both Gemans - who for some reason or another had moved to Denmark. And why?
Or was he danish - and had been in the german army. (It was not an SS uniform)

Being born in 1945 - with a father who was in the resitance, and just managed to escape imprisonment, torture and maybe death - seeing this portrait was quite an eyeopener. And this thread made me think of it again.

 

[pamina]

some old people are glad of their time in the Wehrmacht. i think that's okay, because not everybody was a nazi in the wehrmacht. and sometimes i think that not everybody in the Waffen SS was a nazi. even though everybody says so. i mean - how can somebody hate people just of their religion? and just because one guy hates jews doesn't mean everybody does it too.
most people who are proud of their times in the Wehrmacht were Corporals or more. a "Lanzer" wouldn't be glad of his rang =)