Navigating Profound Uncertainty: Jewish Photography in Nazi Germany

With Ofer Ashkenazi

This talk explores how German Jews used private photography to record and interpret their lives under National Socialism. Drawing on a database of some 15,000 images, it examines how these photographs documented daily experiences and reflected Jewish responses to escalating antisemitic measures. The analysis treats photographs as narrative tools that conveyed emotions, beliefs, and expectations. This approach reveals new insights into German Jews’ self-perceptions and strategies for navigating a time of profound uncertainty. 

Ofer Ashkenazi is Professor of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and current George Mosse Visiting Professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His research explores German-Jewish cultural history, Jewish experience under Nazism, migration and political activism, and the memory of Nazi violence. His recent books include the monographs Still Lives: Jewish Photography in Nazi Germany (2025, with Rebekka Grossmann, Shira Miron, and Sarah Wobick-Segev) and Anti-Heimat Cinema: The Jewish Invention of the German Landscape, 1918–1968 (2020), as well as the edited volume Rethinking Jewish History and Memory through Photography (2025, co-edited with Thomas Pegelow-Kaplan). 

Cosponsors: Nathan and Esther Pelz Holocaust Education Resource Center and UWM’s Departments of Anthropology, Art History, Communication, and History; and Programs in German; Journalism, Advertising, and Media Studies; and Digital Arts and Culture

Free in person or virtual

Register for Zoom at https://bit.ly/4lX2yMe

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