“Great Fun!”: Nazi Germany Photographs and the Unbearable Persistence of Fascism
- Lavavoth
- Dec 16, 2016
- 7 min read
Updated: Apr 24
Countless others lost their lives in similarly senseless ways, sacrificed to a war that was as despicable in its aims as it was devastating in its consequences.
I live in a house filled with the spirits of German soldiers who have chosen to accompany me, to guide my journey, and to help me confront my once-upon-a-time life in Germany. They share their stories with me, the tales of bloodshed and the horrors they committed. But some, like Hermann (or Ernst, as he asked me to call him) share more than just the atrocities of war. They speak of the lives they left behind when the war began.
Like many of the spirits who gather here, Ernst’s life ended in battle. Countless others lost their lives in similarly senseless ways, sacrificed to a war that was as despicable in its aims as it was devastating in its consequences. The enduring impacts of that war persist, leaving a lasting scar of hatred, racism, and fascism that the world is still struggling to heal.
Semantics & Propaganda: A Synergistic Blend of Hate
To understand this more clearly, we must examine certain areas, including semantics. Semantics refers to the way words carry multiple meanings and implications. Since World War II, words like like hatred, racism, and fascism have often been used interchangeably with Nazism, a testament to the pervasive influence of the Nazi propaganda machine, orchestrated by Joseph Goebbels. The Nazis applied such an extensive form of ideological branding that, even today, most people who see a swastika immediately associate it with Nazism rather than its older cultural and religious meanings.
Like Nazism, the swastika remains unwaveringly tied to these associations. In this sense, Hitler continues to achieve what he always sought, a thousand-year reign. World War II may have ended, and the Nazi killing machine may have been dismantled, but the ideological fallout of the fascist regime still reverberates today.
1990s Goth Culture & the Fascist Haircut
I won’t deny it, I’m a fan of the undercut hairstyle. Unfortunately, it has recently been rebranded as the “Hitler Youth” or “fascist” haircut, thanks in part to the alt-right. However, the clean-cut style, especially when worn by flaxen-haired young men, had already been appropriated by the Nazis and prominently featured in their propaganda to embody the ideal Aryan look.
Yet, the hairstyle predates the Nazis. Variations of it reemerged in Western culture during the 1920s, though it had been popular in earlier periods as well. By the time Hitler rose to power, it became closely associated with the Aryan aesthetic. The original photos I’ve posted here illustrate just how widespread this style once was.
Growing up in the 1990s and immersed in the goth scene, the undercut hairstyle was everywhere. For a time, I wore it myself, though with a longer top, dyed jet black. Back then, especially for young women like me, the haircut symbolized irreverence and nonconformity. I also found the style on men incredibly attractive, and, admittedly, that preference hasn’t changed over the years.
So when neo-Nazis and white supremacists dominated the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017, the press was quick to highlight certain details in the footage, including the resurgence of the so-called “fascist haircut.” Once a hallmark of 2010s hipsters, it had now been co-opted by "nipsters" (neo-Nazi hipsters) further entangling the style with far-right imagery.
Taboo Ephemera: My Photo Collection & Why
[The photos] serve as artifacts that allow me to confront that history in ways that are both visceral and psychic.
I’ve previously written about how this dark photo collection began, which you can read about in an earlier post. Initially, World War II photos, especially Nazi Germany photographs, weren’t an area of interest. But when Hans officially made his entrance in 2010, after spending seventeen years mostly under the radar with minimal paranormal activity, his presence ignited my fascination with antique photography.
What began as a passing interest quickly became an obsession. I started by collecting daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, tintypes, carte de visites, and cabinet cards, specifically of young blond men.
"Normandy": The Luftwaffe Ghost & the Portal
"Normandy," said the Luftwaffe paratrooper in the middle of the night, two summers ago, thrusting me into a level of paranormal events I was unprepared for. "Normandy," he repeated, a word I later took as a directive, a place to begin [1].
So I did. And the deeper I plunged into history, and into their pasts, the more the ghosts took a cosmic detour into my home. Some stayed. Others drifted in and out, appearing the moment I thought of them. The more they appeared, the deeper my obsession with collecting these photographs became.
History teaches us nothing. We shelve its lessons again and again. Or perhaps we’re simply doomed to repeat it, too hardwired in our reptilian minds to break the cycle.
I collect these photographs not out of allegiance to the ideology but because they are tethered to a history marked by violence. I recognize that choosing to keep them implicates me in how that history is handled and interpreted. They serve as artifacts that allow me to confront that history in ways that are both visceral and psychic. Each time my fingers pass over an energetically charged photograph (most photos are not charged), I feel the lingering consequences of fascism, the remnants of lives entangled in its machinery.
What unsettles me most about Nazi military portraits are the unblemished faces of youth. These men seem unaware of what lay ahead, of the brutality they would inflict. Evidence suggests that for many in the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe, killing became a source of exhilaration. Transcripts capture bomber pilots speaking of “mowing down” soldiers and civilians alike, describing indiscriminate bombing as “great fun.” The word fun surfaces repeatedly in archived transcripts, a persistent reminder of how war distorts moral frameworks beyond recognition.
For me, the photographs serve as a means of examining the faces, searching for traces of the young men beneath the uniforms. Were these taken before they saw battle? Some expressions suggest as much. Most don’t yet bear the gauntness of hunger or the telltale signs of Pervitin (A.K.A. Pilot’s Salt, Panzerschokolade). Their youthful faces often contradict the severity of their uniforms, like boys unknowingly auditioning for the roles of villains. But some look the part, killers with rigid composure, their eyes betraying them, their smirks barely restrained.
Through these photographs, I try to see not just them, but myself. Each time I regress into that past life, I search for fragments of the person I had been, a figure long gone yet still marked by shame.
And now, as the president-elect methodically unravels what little progress this country has made, I feel the parallels to1933. I want no part of this hatred, this homophobic, white supremacist rot. Not after having lived through it once before, in a country that tore itself apart.
History teaches us nothing. We shelve its lessons again and again. Or perhaps we’re simply doomed to repeat it, too hardwired in our reptilian minds to break the cycle. For me, confronting the past by directly accessing the stories of the dead is not just cathartic. It also reveals how easily civilization spirals into destruction. History, as it unfolds in the present, is difficult to grasp. Civilians and soldiers who lived through Nazi Germany often spoke in terms of denial, an inability to believe their country was capable of such horrors. And yet, it happened. And it can happen again.
Notes
[1] I recently wrote about this event in its entirety for a course, including the way Hans led me to discover his identity online. The event was synchronous in the manner its elements came together under his orchestration. It stands as one of the most profound experiences I have had with him, alongside the Stowe Soaring event, our trip to Auschwitz (which I also discuss in a paper that still needs to be posted to the blog), and the "River Phoenix" visitation dream, among others.