Die Tat als Bild: Fotografien des Holocaust in der deutschen Erinnerungskultur

Historian Habbo Knoch employs iconographic methods, semiotic field analysis, and a critical examination of historical sources to explore the emergence of a repertoire of visual material related to Nazi crimes in postwar West German society. The author examines a broad array of materials, including popular media such as magazines, films and the so-called Landserhefte, as well as the use of photographs in exhibitions, school textbooks and the press, to reveal the iconographic patterns of this visual repertoire and elucidate its position within German public discourse about the Nazi past. Habbo Knoch's book is a landmark contribution to the study of the power of images and to the history of mentality and culture in the Federal Republic of Germany.