Pictures of an exhibition. Critical review of the exhibition 'Vernichtungskrieg, Verbrechen der Wehrmacht 1914 bis 1944'

The essay discusses the photographs on display in the exhibition entitled " Vernichtungskrieg. Verbrechen der Wehrmacht 1941 bis 1944". The so-called W ehrmachtausstellung caused considerable controversy because the persons res ponsible for the exhibit claimed that all the photographs displayed showed crimes committed by the Wehrmacht. In the author's view, important photogra phs of the exhibition actually document Soviet crimes during the summer of 1941. The focus of this essay, however, is not to dispute whether or not th e Wehrmacht committed crimes. Rather, the author sets about to prove that a t least nine photographs show crimes committed by the Soviets and that anot her two dozen of them give grounds to believe the Soviets were involved. In order to identify the source of these photographs and to make clear what t hey show, the author describes Soviet war crimes during the first weeks of the German-Soviet war. The discovery of the photographs shown, what became of them and how they subsequently found their way into the exhibition are p oints the author discusses in detail.