Skip to main content
Photography and resistance: securing the evidence in Nazi-occupied Europe
Nick Wright talks to photographer and author JANINA STRUK
HAUNTING: Siedlce. ‘Deportation of Jews to Treblinka,’ from the collections of the E Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute

IN Nazi-occupied Europe the act of taking a photograph was to risk life itself.

Photography and Resistance: Securing the Evidence in Nazi-Occupied Europe begins with two striking images taken from inside a building in Drohobycz, then part of Poland and today Drohobych in Ukraine. They show the execution of five civilians by a Nazi firing squad.

The first image shows individuals being led to the execution site by armed German soldiers, the second shows a firing squad pointing their weapons at the wall directly below where the photographer was standing. Adam Paszulka, a local resident, took the clandestine pictures from his kitchen window.  

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
(L to R) How many Aunties?, Back Hares Mount, Leeds, 1978; M
Photography / 14 April 2025
14 April 2025

Peter Mitchell's photography reveals a poetic relationship with Leeds

Omar Badsha, Funeral of Stembiso Nzuza and Moses Ramatlotlo,
Book Review / 22 March 2025
22 March 2025
BOB NEWLAND recommends an outstanding study of how images have shaped narratives of identity, resistance and power in South Africa
Andrew Wiard
Demonstration against the imminent invasion of
Exhibition review / 11 March 2025
11 March 2025
JON BALDWIN appreciates the way Steve McQueen has curated the evidence of our resistance, and is inspired by their cumulative effect
Consuelo Kanaga. Young Girl in Profile, 1948.
Books / 3 October 2024
3 October 2024
JOHN GREEN marvels at the rediscovery of a radical US photographer who took the black civil rights movement to her heart