This haunting image of a boy too young to be a menace to anyone is familiar as a stand-alone portrait. However, it is actually part of a group shot portraying SS men as well as their Jewish prisoners in the Warsaw Ghetto.
About a dozen individuals are potentially identifiable from the original photograph, and there are several candidates for the boy with his hands up. Only one person has been definitely identified in the larger group.
This infant—traumatized, possibly injured and abandoned—was one of many victims when Japanese bombers blasted Shanghai South train station to smithereens in August 1937.
The incident has a name: “Bloody Saturday.” We know the photographer: H. S. Wong (a.k.a Wong Hai-Sheng, Wang Xiaoting and by his nickname “Newsreel”). We know almost nothing about the baby.
Abandon ship! Carrying civilians in 1941, the Zamzam was attacked and disabled by Atlantis, a German raider. A cunning photographer led to eventual revenge.
Bathtime. The beauty in the bathtub is Lee Miller, an American-born model and artist—and wartime photojournalist for British Vogue.
The bathtub? Adolf Hitler’s.
VJ-Day—Victory over Japan.
The good news was so good that they sealed it with a kiss. But who is the kisser—and who is the kissee?
Dead Snakes Can Bite Life magazine photographer George Strock came perilously close to losing his life. He was saved in a manner that has become a Hollywood staple.
And after his lucky escape, he took the first published photo of dead American soldiers. Read more
A Picture Too Far: Buna Beach and CensorshipWhen American military censors received the first photographs of dead Americans at Buna Beach, they worried that publication would be too upsetting for the general public. The photos were censored.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt finally approved publication—several months later. Read more
Dancing for Joy?Belgium. Nazi HQ, June 17, 1940. Germany overwhelmed France, and Hitler did a Chaplinesque two-step. Never happened. Probably! Read more
Stalin’s Jewish Ears – A Smoking Gun?Was Stalin Jewish? Hitler had suspicions – and theories, one of which was that Jews had, well, Jewish ears. To see for himself, the German leader ordered a headshot of his Soviet counterpart. Read more
Bernhardine Nienau, Chosen by HitlerFor several years before the war, Hitler entertained little Bernile at the Berghof. When her Jewish ancestry was uncovered, he unfriended her. Reluctantly. Read more
Real or 1943 ‘Photoshop’?Was this photograph genuine? Hitler had his doubts. Friedrich Paulus, head of the Sixth Army in Stalingrad, was actually a Field Marshal—and German Field Marshals preferred suicide to surrender. At least, they were supposed to.
Concentration Camps Cost ExtraA London wax museum mounted this extraordinary exhibition several months before Germany surrendered—and before Auschwitz was liberated. Read more
The Reichstag Red Flag: Faked?Staged? Faked? Like Joe Rosenthal’s famous Iwo Jima image that inspired him, Evgeny Khaldei’s dramatic photograph attracted controversy – and still appears in different versions. Read more
Hitler in Paris (1)This photograph “shocked the world”, according to the small print above the title of this slim volume by Don Nardo. As well it might: Hitler in Paris was the mother of all photo ops. Read more
Hessy Taft: Perfect Aryan Child!When Hessy Levinson was chosen (possibly by Josef Goebbels) as Germany’s most beautiful Aryan child, her parents were more scared than proud. This beauty queen was a time bomb. Read more