Figure 1.-- These Beloruusiam/Ukranian boys have been given food by German soldiers, we think about September 1941. German policy was to seize food supplies, leaving little for the local population.

These Belorussian/Ukranian boys have been given food by German soldiers, we think about September 1941. German policy was to seize food supplies, leaving little for the local population. All we can tell about the boys is that they are rural children. The children do not look malnourished, but their focus on the food suggests that they are hungary. Quite a number of German soldiers took photographs and compiled albums of their exploits to show their parents and children the great feats that they accomplished. There is no indication as to where this photograph was taken. We think it was either the Ukraine or Belorussia. The way the children are dressed suggest to us the early fall. There is no snow, but the boys are wearing jackets. Thus it does not look to us like June-August. Perhaps mid- or late-Sprtember or even ealy-October is likely, almost certainly 1941. Food became a major problem for the people in the occupied areas.

Photographer

The photographer is an unidentified German soldier. He or a comrad has given these two children some food.

The Children

All we can tell about the boys is that they are rural children. The children do not look malnourished, but their focus on the food suggests that they are hungary.

German Soldier Photography

German World War II photography is an interesting subject. Front line soldiers were not suposed to carry cameras and take what amounted to tourist photographs. Clearly some did. The German soldiers involved in Barbarossa like all soldiers had differentvattitudes and motivations. Some themselves as remaking Europe and perhaps the world. Thus quite a number took photographs and compiled albums of their exploits to show their parents and children the great feats that they accomplished.

Proviance

Most of these images, including this one have not come to us from Germany. This means that they come from photographs seized from German soldiers when the Red army retook the Ukraine (1943-44). We suspect that Germans soldiers kept their photographic albums at home rather than carrying the alnums with them. An exception might be quiet occupation duty in places like France. Thus these images may come from alnums seized by Red Army soldiers during the occupation of Germany and brought back to the Ukraine.

Location

There is no indication as to where this photograph was taken. We think it msay be some where in the Ukraine. The fact that the dealer is in Kiev is one factor. Another factor is the areas occupied by the Germans. The Germans in the south moved into the Ukraine from the opening phase of Barbarossa. In the north, however, they moved into the Baltics and what was at the time Soviet occupied Poland and Bylorussia. They did not get very far into Russia proper until October. (Army Hroup Center reached Smolemnsk in mid-July, but did not drive east of Smolensk wutil early October.) And when the weather begin to get colder and the fighting more intense we see fewer photographs. And then after the Red Army offensive before Moscow the Germans ere driven out of much of the Russian territory they had taken, although the Germans held on to the Baltics and Belorussia. A Russian reader thinks the photograph may have been taken in Belorussia. "The weather in Ukraine is dry and hot, especially in the south, and the climate is very warm compared with other parts of Russia. Id say seeng their clothes that these boys are wearing that they may be from Belorussia, maybe west or northwest Russia - but not that part of Ukraine that was controlled by the Germans in June-September 1941. Note the stacked hay and warm coats and caps of boys - during September in Ukraine there is hot and dry weather."

Food

Food became a major problem for the people in the occupied areas. Farming became diificult because of the War. Much farm equipment was destoyed. The Germans began seizing people for slave labor in the Reich. They also seized harvests. Farmers not turning over what the Germans wanted could be shot are seized for slave labor. This further disrupted production. Often very little was left for the farmers. And when the Germans were not present, the Partisans also demanded food. NAZI policy was to fepopulate the cities. Thus unless city residents worked for the Germans, they were not issued ration cards. Many city residents were thus forced into the country side. As a result, the huge harvests Hitler expected never materialzed. Harvests were adequate to feed the Wehrmacht kin the East, but only limited shipments materialized for the German civilian population.

Chronology

The way the children are dressed suggest to us the early fall. There is no snow, but the boys are wearing jackets. Thus it does not look to us like June-August. Perhaps mid- or late-Sprtember or even ealy-October is likely, almost certainly 1941. We think that most of the tourist-type photographs were most likely taken in 1941. Russia looked so different to the German soldiers that they took a lot of photographs. Later not only did it no look so different, but the fighting intensified leaving less time to take photographs.

Poverty

One of the most notable aspects of this and other German soldier photographs is the abject poverty of rural Russia. (At the time American Communists were describing aker's pradise.) What you see here is not the Soviet Union after it was ravished by the Germans, but how the rural population lived with people wearing rags. We thpought conditions might be particularly poor in the Ukraine as a result of the Stalin engineered by Stalian and other anti-Ukranian policies. Another factor was Stalin's policy of financing industrialization by limiting resources availble to the rural population. A Russian reader writes, ">Rural Russia, not only in Ukraine, almost everywhere, was extremely poor after Stalin's collectivisation in early 30s. For example, Volga region >(Povolzhye) heavily suffered from the Cholera epidemy in 1918, then from >the famine of 1921 year, then from the collectivization in early 30s. More than 21 percent of the rural population of Volga region died from famine >and other things in those years (including my greatgrandfather and other >relatives). Most of rural families was extremely poor (family that had one cow thought to be a "middle class" in those times, and even a goat. My mother told me that all neighbors envied to those who had even a goat) - and children clothes in poor families weere extremely simple - >for boys it was one long pants and one shirt, for all seasons, without any underwear. People cleaned their clothes when they got a bath, once per week, then put it on again. They wore these clothes both as a casual wear and a sleepwear too... For village people, according to Stalin's laws after early 30s it was almost impossible to migrate into towns or cities, 'cause they had no passports at all. To get a passport a village resident had to get a permission from the kolhoz chairman and Communist authorities. Surely, in cities and some villages that had a state support people lived much better and their clothes was much more elaborate."

Created: 5:33 AM 3/2/2010
Last updated: 9:24 AM 3/2/2010