The Austrian press photographer Franz Seraphicus Roth worked for the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda and as a photo editor for the American news agency Associated Press. The Associated Press photo department entered a formal cooperation with the Nazi regime in the 1930s and worked under the auspices of the German Ministry of Propaganda. Franz Roth joined the Kriegsberichterstatter-Zug of the LSSAH under SS-Sturmbannführer
Kurt Meyer in 1940. The prominent Waffen-SS photographer Franz Roth was awarded the Iron Cross Second Class in 1941 and promoted SS-Untersturmführer in September 1942. Although he got killed during the Third Battle of Kharkov in early 1943, Roth left more than 120 rolls of film that give historians and history lovers a precious account of the war. His contact sheets are kept by the U.S. National Archives in Washington D.C. Franz Roth was posthumously awarded the Iron Cross First Class and buried at Heldenfriedhof Askold's Grave on the right bank of the Dnieper in Kiev in Ukraine. His images can be found in a variety of European World War II propaganda publications and in American newspapers. Credit: author Charles Trang. Left image: the 30-year-old SS-Kriegsberichter Franz Roth wearing a
SS-Palmenmuster camouflage smock at the Eastern front in 1941. Priv.coll. FU. Right image: as this photo indicates PK photographers were very much part of the front line troops. Note unusual double Leica camera and the Mauser C96 semi-automatic pistol nicknamed
Kuhfußpistole stuffed into the boot. The gaiters at right suggest a Soviet Red Army prisoner. Photo by KB Hanns Hubmann for Signal Magazine. c. Bundesarchiv.
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ReplyDeleteYou would think that with the entry of the US into the war there would be a final cut between the Associated Press and Nazi Germany. But the surprising thing is, there was no cut. The company continued working, in agreement with their New York office. Between 1941 and 1945 the Associated Press and the German regime exchanged tens of thousands of pictures. A former employee reported about the cooperation. The Swedish picture agency “Pressens Bild” was used as a cover-up for the exchange of photos, which were sent through Sweden.
ReplyDeleteAnd was there ever a better Leica setup than in this picture? Two different focal lengths to swap in between - just flip it.
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