Shadows of War: A German Soldier’s Lost Photographs of World War II
Bopp, Petra
Harry N. Abrams, 2005

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The study of military history can lead you down some strange paths. Many times we read of people who fight wars doing heroic things like vanquishing despots, commanding armies, or planning invasions. Yet, more often than not we think to ourselves "If I was there, I probably would have been just another grunt." If we are lucky, we stumble upon a book where we can easily see ourselves in the boots of a common soldier, doing what they did amidst all the war and horror going on around them. This book, Shadows of War, was one of those volumes which struck me on a deeper level because I felt I could somewhat relate to the man behind the camera…

As a person who has grown up in the comfort and safety of peace, but has often studied and witnessed books and movies on war, I often ask myself what I would have done had I been present during those events. What if I had grown up in Germany before the Second World War? I certainly would have been conscripted into the Wehrmacht (German armed forces), certainly would have had to fight, and odds are I would have suffered and possibly died in the depths of Russia. Not a pleasant thought to say the least…but being able to put yourself in the shoes of friend and foe alike is one method to help understand and appreciate those events that now seem so distant. This book is one attempt to bring those situations back to life, and the pictures provide snapshots (both literally and figuratively) of what the common German soldier had to endure, what he saw, and where he went – but NOT what he thought. This book is devoid of political sentiment, and dwells only on the stark reality in which these men existed.

The photographer passed away recently and thus was unable to (or unwilling) to add his personal thoughts to this collection – and we are left to ponder the significance behind these very diverse images. It was easy for me to find an underlying connection to them since the photographer, Willi Rose, began his career in a bicycle unit. As a passionate bike rider and photographer myself, it was not hard to imagine myself in a similar unit during those times… many of his photographs show his bike unit moving across bridges, riding in fields, or simply resting. These are all things I do on my bike regularly, allowing me to see many of those pictures as shots I myself would take (and often do with my own camera, with my own riding group). Our similarities gave me a perceived understanding of what he went through on his bicycle as I followed his pictures from the French campaign of 1940 to a point deep in the Caucasus region of Russia (and back). At times cheerful in showing his buddies resting or goofing around, the tone is undeniably darker as the Russian campaign wears on and he snaps pictures of burning villages, destroyed vehicles, his tired commanders and companions, and finally the Soviet soldiers themselves (prisoners of war).

Since there are few shots of actual warfare, we are left to imagine war is just around the corner, or just over the horizon, or just in the shadows of these pictures. Never is it manifest in a direct, in-your-face fashion. Yet, this does not detract from the value of the photographs, and in fact helps put the reader into the scenes much more readily simply because they are mundane – things we could imagine seeing. One of the more haunting scenes is a shot of two German police officers talking to a Russian civilian woman in front of her house. At first glance the scene appears harmless…but there in the shadow of the doorway we can see an outline of one of the police officers – almost as if Willi was carefully snapping this picture to show the deeper implications of her plight. As with all the other pictures, we are left to wonder what happened to her, what she was thinking, whether that shadow in the doorway was about to strike? Was Willi a witness to such horrors? So many questions contained in each photograph.

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