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HIGHLIGHTS

A Child at Gunpoint: A Case Study in the Life of a Photo
By Richard Raskin

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.

192 pages
illustrations
Published by Aarhus University Press, Denmark.
ISBN: 87-7934-099-7 (pbk.)
Call no: DS135 .P62 W3294 2004

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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