In 2023, my family contacted the city #archive of #Kassel #Germany to let them know about some photos we found amongst the things of my great uncle, Milton, when he passed away. Milton was stationed in Kassel after WWII as part of a group of US Army soldiers tasked with helping to reestablish government after the war.
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While in Kassel, Milton acquired a collection of undated postcard images of many of the city's culturally significant buildings, monuments and streets from before the war. With what was probably a rudimentary #camera he then proceeded to take photographs of the exact same locations from similar camera angles, showcasing the damage and destruction caused by the war in a very literal way.
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When Milton passed, we found these photographic pairs mounted on a board and scanned them at high quality. It occurred to us that the city of Kassel might be interested in having these pairs (33 in total).
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Sadly, the city archive did not respond to our message which I assumed at the time was just some sort of bureaucratic screw-up since the photos were obviously so interesting. The message sat in my inbox until a few days ago until I decided to just bump the e-mail, essentially 3 years later. And I was very happily surprised when someone from the archive replied, (apologized for missing the original message), and expressed some interest in the photos!
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I hope that these direct before-and-after images of the power and horror of war can help avert future horror. Here are 4 of the images; I think they're just incredible.
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Update! My contact at the archive replied in more detail and is interested in the photos! She says they'd fit in well with the collection there. She's asking if she can have the originals but I'm a bit wary of that. Might see if I can convince them to take high rez scans. Not sure if my family's consumer scanner is good enough though 😕
Any #digitalarchivists about with suggestions?
Jesse Spielman
Rejin