Ethical Aspects of Gazing upon Archival Photographs from Online Primary Sources
Ethical Aspects of Gazing upon Archival Photographs from Online Primary Sources

Summary/Abstract: This article explores the ethical implications of viewing the photographs from Holocaust archives by posing several questions. Does viewing such photographs ultimately render us numb? Do we add to the humiliation of the victims in the photographs by gazing up on these images? Or do the demands of history, memory, and testimony require us to view such archival material? The article argues that, while viewing the photographs is a necessary part of engaging the Holocaust, we can never do so without incurring a measure of guilt.Therefore delving into this research is always ethically charged. Elie Wiesel once invoked to me Lot’s wife, saying that the transgression that transformed her into a pillar of salt was to rob the victims of the privacy of their suffering and humiliation, and therefore of their dignity as human beings. If the Nazis set out to murder souls before they destroyed bodies –if they systematically tortured and humiliated the Jews before murdering them – then we must be very careful about adding to the crime by gazing upon the victims. Indeed, such agaze can have something of “a Nazi gaze” about it, whether the imaged was photographed by Nazis or not.

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