2007-01-19 09:52:40 · 10 answers · asked by Frank B 1 in Arts & Humanities ➔ History
I have been studying military history, and particularly WWII, for more than 35 years, and the photo that I have provided the link for below is, in my opinion, the best single image to describe what World War II was all about. As soon as I saw your question, this was the image that came to my mind.
Photos such as the raising of the flag on Mount Suribachi during the Iwo Jima campaign are certainly important images from that war, but they really don't get at the heart of what the war was all about.
Wars are fought for reasons. WWII was essentially a reaction to the oppression and murder of millions of people in Europe, in Asia, and elswhere, by brutal miltary dictatorships. There are those who focus on the cynical reasons for the Allies struggle against Nazi Germany and militarist Japan, and there certainly were cynical reasons. But above all else was the idea that the Allies were standing up to the bullies of the world for all the people who couldn't stand up for themselves. No other single picture that I know of, and I have looked at thousands from that period, conveys that idea better better than the one below.
2007-01-19 10:41:22 · answer #1 · answered by Jeffrey S 4 · 3⤊ 0⤋
One of the most frequently reprinted images in Britain is of firefighters in London during the Blitz. It's at night, of course, and the flames of the burning buildings highlight their faces as they play a huge jet of water on them.
For me, it's a close call between that one, and one of Berlin late in the war, taken in a cold grey early morning light from a low-altitude plane. The streets are deserted, and every building in sight is bombed to a shell, with the remains of their walls jutting up like the stumps of rotten teeth.
After the war, there was a big effort to agree to wall off and preserve one square mile of ruined Berlin as a permanent monument, to remind the Germans and everybody else not to do it again. Would it have worked? But we'll never know.
2007-01-19 21:45:39 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
A photo of Auschwitz the day the prisoners were discovered and freed.I don't know who took the photo.
2007-01-19 10:53:00 · answer #3 · answered by the old dog 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Photos of the Landings in Normandy. Pick the one you like best.
2007-01-19 10:02:59 · answer #4 · answered by colinchief 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Refugees or bombed out cities. Perhaps the cities, because they are universal (apart from the US), and do not have connotations of particular nations' victories or defeats.
2007-01-19 12:49:52 · answer #5 · answered by iansand 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The Marines lifting the flag at IwoJima.
2007-01-19 10:01:05 · answer #6 · answered by morlock825 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Dresden, germany after it was bombed/obliterated, or substitute London or Tokyo
2007-01-19 13:05:29 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The book by Eugene Sledge
2016-05-23 22:42:12 · answer #8 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Pictures from the concentration camps.
2007-01-19 10:22:54 · answer #9 · answered by BethS 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Photos of Winston Churchill with his bulldog look and never, never, never, never, never give in look on his face.
2007-01-19 09:58:39 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋