Photograph exhibition organised by students highlights liberation of Nazi camps

A photograph exhibition highlighting the liberation of Nazi camps during the Second World War will launch at the David Wilson Library on Wednesday 22 March.

The exhibition, which has been organised by History students and our Stanley Burton Centre for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, is based on wartime photographs that were in the possession of George Barton, a member of a British Photographic Unit.

The photographs revealed evidence of Nazi crimes and depicted the camps as they were liberated and of the Nazi guards as they were taken into captivity. Barton’s granddaughter, Elizabeth Lowen from Oadby, generously donated the pictures to the Stanley Burton Centre – allowing students to work with these precious primary sources.

Dr Alexander Korb, Director of the Stanley Burton Centre, said: “My students did a fantastic job to use their in-depth knowledge of the Holocaust to explain those chilling photos, to make them speak to the public.

“When one looks into the faces of SS-chief Himmler pictured right after he committed suicide, or of Belsen-commander Kramer right after he was captured, one starts to re-think how these people were capable of doing what they did.”

The exhibition also discusses wartime photography in general, and what ‘liberation’ meant for the survivors.

The exhibition will be opened on Wednesday 22 March, at the David Wilson Library, between 5pm-6pm, by the Head of College of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities, Professor Julie Coleman.