"Album of the Damned: Snapshots From The Third Reich" by Paul Garson

ISBN #9780897335767

I read this book about 2 weeks ago but I just came across it at work again and thought I'd post a quick review while I'm on break.

As you can tell from the title, the book is made up mostly of pictures with some text. These pictures were taken by everyday Germans; soldiers, Nazi party members, housewives, children, etc...

It is this aspect that makes the pictures so powerful because it shows everyday people doing everyday things. Normal people like you and I. But then you think about what some of these people did...and the author provides details that are haunting when compared with the idyllic represtation of the photos. Like the middle aged men in uniform smiling at the camera. Could be our neighbors, our family members. They seem like the kind of people you'd like to know. Then you realize the uniforms they are wearing are those of the police battalions assigned to the cleansing of Jews and other undesirables from Poland and other conquered territories. These smiling happy men killed other men, women, and children because they felt it was the right thing; it was necessary.

Take a look at the book...sometimes the author can get a tad melodramatic (for example in a picture of a pre-war matronly woman photographed before some trees he points out the shadows cast and comments that they bring to mind the shadow of war looming!); overall, however, it is quite an experience.

"And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them"
- Romans 1:28-32