Maxine Rude's Photographs
Working out of UNRRA Headquarters in Washington D.C., Maxine Rude was assigned to Germany in 1945. With equipment on loan from the Air Force, and working from a makeshift darkroom set up in the former I. G. Farben Chemical complex in Hoechst, her assignment was to record UNRRA operations. Rude and her assistant Norman Weaver, later awarded the Order of the British Empire for his service, processed film and made enlargements in the former medical clinic, using the marble walls for drying prints. Although most of the work represented here was done in Germany, she traveled to seventeen countries in Europe making hundreds of exposures, with barely enough time to concentrate on any one particular aspect of the project. Familiar with the UNRRA camps through her extensive travels, Rude became an escort for VIP tours out of Washington D.C., and in that capacity spent two days observing the Nuremberg Trials from the press box. Unfortunately for her, her work for UNRRA ended in 1946 before the first repatriation ship sailed to Palestine (Israel), thus she was not able to cover the event. Much of the original material - prints and negatives - are now housed in the UNRRA archives in New York City.
Made for the Public Information Division of UNRRA, under its director Morse Salisbury, this genre of photography is often referred to as "editorial". The photographs were created primarily as public information. The idea of the photograph as public information is an interesting one. Situations with representative subjects were recorded with an eye to creating information about the scope of the relief efforts and endeavors of the agency for use by the print media. In a time predating television media the still photo was often used to promote a positive or negative image and sway public opinion accordingly. After all, a direct relationship had previously existed between the public presentation of photographs done by individuals or groups and the resultant forming of public opinion often led to action. Lewis Hine's work, for instance, was instrumental in the enactment of the Child Labor Laws. Likewise. the documentary work in the Thirties of such Farm Security Administration (FSA) photographers as John Vachon (UNRRA photographer, Poland, 1946) and Dorothea Lange (who documented the forced internment of Japanese Americans) helped procure support for New Deal rescue programs. It is within this context that these specific photographs were made.
These photographs, however, are not about the conditions of camp life. Some are straightforward photojournalism, others are straightforward publicity. As editorial/publicity photographs, we believe the attempt was to present a positive picture of the endeavors of a beleaguered UNRRA. Perhaps some played a role in garnering new or continued support from the various relief agencies contributing to this effort.
The photographs in the exhibition were selected from original prints in Rude's personal collection. They were chosen on the basis of aesthetics, content, and more importantly, as a response to, and in support of, the call of the conference: How shall we keep the memory alive after the survivors of and witnesses to the Holocaust are no longer with us? The photographs themselves, whether candid or setup - actual encounters versus the reality of the recorded scene composed by the photographer - stand as important historic documents serving as primary sources and are reminders for our children of the are horrific times following the Holocaust.
Some of the photographs from the exhibition are reproduced here with accompanying remembrances to represent those hand typed by Maxine Rude. - MEJ