Looking without Seeing: Visual Literacy in Light of Holocaust Photography

The Holocaust was one of the most photographed genocides of the twentieth century. Since 1945, images from the liberation of the camps were used as shaming and shocking instruments of visual denazification. Many decades later, these icons are still used in educational contexts such as school textbooks, exhibitions, and documentaries and are presented almost exclusively as mere illustrations and not as independent sources. By approaching the image as a source, this contribution reflects on the different ways of looking at and seeing Holocaust photography. By moving from a purely emotional and illustrative approach to a more integrated visual approach, the complex dynamics underlying the Holocaust and the timeless mechanisms of totalitarianism (victimization, perpetration, and implication) can be better understood.