It is one of the most iconic images of the Holocaust: amidst a crowd of men, women, and children being rounded up at gunpoint by Nazi soldiers, a small boy stands apart from the group, his arms raised, bearing an expression of bewilderment and terror. Who was he, and why does he command our attention so strongly?
In this book, author Richard Raskin examines this image from multiple historical and artistic perspectives and discusses the ways it has been used outside of its historical context. Raskin delves into origins of the photograph as part of the infamous Stroop Report, the documentation of the liquidation and destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto, and describes how this particular image may have been used and interpreted by Nazi authorities. He then explores the identities of the individuals in the photograph, including the women and children in the foreground and the SS officer overlooking the scene. Raskin presents four possibilities for the boy’s identity, outlining and analyzing each one.
The final sections of the book are devoted to detailed studies of the photograph and its appearance as a central element in numerous paintings and films. The author closes the book with a discussion of how the image has been used as a rhetorical device in ongoing political conflicts. As the author says in the preface, “this may well be the first book devoted to a single photograph.”
This book is extensively illustrated throughout, and includes a bibliography of related works as well as an index.
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| TABLE OF CONTENTS | |
| Preface | 5 |
| Chapter One: A Closer Look at the Photograph | |
| Introductory note | 11 |
| Preliminary observations | 12 |
| Five properties of the photograph | 17 |
| Chapter Two: The Origins of the Photo: The Stroop Report | |
| Introductory note | 25 |
| The making of the Stroop Report | 25 |
| Stroop’s fate | 27 |
| What became of the originals | 28 |
| The photographer | 31 |
| The first public mention of the Stroop Report and the photo | 32 |
| The textual sections of the Stroop Report | 34 |
| The photographic section of the Stroop Report | 39 |
| Intended and unintended functions of the Stroop Report | 51 |
| Appendix I. The Warsaw Ghetto: A Chronological Overview | 58 |
| Appendix II. OCC Staff Evidence Analysis | 61 |
| Chapter Three: The Photograph in Context | |
| Introductory Note | 71 |
| Possible meanings and functions of the photo for Stroop, Krüpp and Himmler |
72 |
| Chapter Four: Identities | |
| Introductory Note | 81 |
| The boy in the photo: four possible identities | 82 |
| Other captives | 93 |
| The SS trooper: Josef Blösche | 94 |
| Chapter Five: The Role of the Photograph in Selected Works of Art | |
| Introductory Note | 105 |
| Frederic Raphael, The Glittering Prizes (BBC, 1976) | 107 |
| Yala Korwin, The Little Boy With His Hands Up (1982) | 115 |
| Mitko Panov, With Raised Hands (1985) | 119 |
| Samuel Bak, A series of paintings (1995-present) | 130 |
| Chapter Six: Palestinian Parallels? Uses of the Photo in a War of Images |
|
| Introductory Note | 157 |
| A political cartoon and its background | 162 |
| Hanoch Levine’s The Patriot | 164 |
| A Palestinian child | 166 |
| Modammed al-Dura | 169 |
| A Concluding Note | 177 |
| Bibliography | 179 |
| Picture and Other Credits | 185 |
| Acknowledgements | 187 |
| Index | 191 |
