Victim of Persecution (VI/44/9)
August Sander
Victim of Persecution (VI/44/9), c. 1938
Gelatin silver print
Ed. 12/12 of 1990
24 x 18
“It is these German Jews who now look back at us through the lens of one of the greatest photographers of the 20th Century. Other photographic collections have also put faces to these figures, in particular the identity photographs taken in 1938 when the German government forced Jews to renew their papers. But none compare with August Sander’s skillfully produced portraits of the Jews who sat for him in his studio.” – Sophie Nagiscarde
August Sander took this intense and touching portrait of a young persecuted woman in 1938 in his Cologne studio on her behalf. As a commercial portraitist during the second world war, he photographed all citizens equally. Among them were numerous Jews, who had their ID photographs taken in Sanders studio. By picturing these persecuted men and women with dignity, he made them visible as People of the 20th Century, thus negotiating the Nazis efforts to make them sink without trace.
