New Images of Nazi Germany: A Photographic Collection, by Paul Garson

Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2012. Pp. viii, 488. Illus., biblio., index. $55.00 paper. ISBN: 0786469668.

A Trove of Rare Images from the Third Reich

Garson, a freelance writer with a number of other books to his credit, including an earlier collection of rare images from the Nazi Era, brings us 500 more very rare pictures from the Third Reich garnered from various archives and collections. “Rare” is the operative word; virtually none of these pictures were familiar to this reviewer. 

Garson opens the book with a brief account of the history of photography in Germany through the Nazi regime. He follows this with about 30 short chapters, each full of carefully annotated images illustrative of some aspect of life, war, and death during the Third Reich, many of which have documentary value. There are sections on children and the Nazi movement, entertainment under the Hitlerite regime, racial propaganda, and the arts. Naturally there are many pictures touching upon war in all its aspects, from the home front to the battlefront. We get images of weaponry and soldiers, lots of soldiers, Axis, allied and collaborator forces, prisoners-of-war, mass murder, Allied retribution, and more. 

While the text has a number of errors of fact, and stands in need of better copy editing, New Images of Nazi Germany is a valuable contribution to the history of photography under the Third Reich and makes a good read for anyone interested in the Second World War.

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