For decades, former US soldier Carl McDaniel's black-and-white
snapshots of postwar Berlin were filed in photo albums in his
Pennsylvania home, destined to be passed on to grandchildren.
Negatives sat in small boxes on a shelf in his home
office.
Then, several years ago, he posted his pictures on a Web site
where they caught the eye of officials at the Allied Museum in
Berlin. Now, those photos are featured in an exhibit there
commemorating the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II.
The exhibit entitled "Berlin 1945: A Private View," is on
display through September 5. It is the first of its kind featuring
only personal photos taken by soldiers, museum director Helmut
Trotnow said.
"I'm 81 and I haven't had any glory in my day," says McDaniel,
gray hair creeping out from underneath a black hat inscribed with
"Berlin 1945-46" in gold letters. "And this story is giving me a
little bit of glory."
McDaniel has about 130 of the 200 photos he snapped in Berlin
with a Kodak Retina camera he got by trading two packs of
cigarettes. He lost track of most of the rest after sending them to
his mother while he was in Berlin.
That's no matter to Trotnow, who praises McDaniel's work as a
treasure trove of unusual private snapshots of life in Berlin in
the years after Germany was defeated.
Originally snapshots that measured two inches by three inches,
the museum paid to restore the quality of the photos and then had
them blown up in size. McDaniel has copies of the restored photos
at home, and he has a story behind each one.
"I go through these every night," he says. "I know these
pictures by heart."
Many show the ruins left behind from the Allied bombing of Nazi
party headquarters and other strategic sites in Berlin. One photo
depicts a little girl in a coat but no shoes staring at what appear
to be two Russian soldiers and an American soldier smiling and
posing for another picture.
"I wish I realized then that the little girl didn't have shoes,
because if I knew, that girl would have shoes," McDaniel says.
Another favorite shows a woman and her daughter standing in
front of the snow-covered rubble of a destroyed building. The
mother, wearing a white jacket and a scarf wrapped around her head,
offers a grin; the daughter wears a dark overcoat, the camera
capturing the moment when her eyes are shut. She does not
smile.
Did he date the daughter?
"Oh yeah, I went to see her," he says nonchalantly.
He'd like to know if the woman is alive. "If she went to the
museum, and saw the picture, certainly she would do something about
it," he says.
It was relatively common then for soldiers to take pictures with
cameras they got on the black market, Trotnow says, but through the
decades, no one thought to ask Allied veterans who served in Berlin
for their photographs. Most common are Russian photographs, but
those pictures were controlled by the military, according to
Trotnow.
"Because of McDaniel's Web site, we suddenly realized there was
a personal view" of Allied life in Berlin, Trotnow said in an
interview from his office in Berlin.
McDaniel has been an avid amateur photographer for most of his
life. While in Germany in 1945 and 1946 with the 279th Station
Hospital, he developed pictures himself using tools and chemicals
he had from his assignment as an X-ray technician.
He returned home to Williamsport in 1946 and met and married his
wife, Gladys - he still affectionately calls her "Bunny." They have
lived in the same modest yellow house on a quiet tree-lined street
for the last 53 years.
McDaniel has snapped countless pictures since then. But he calls
the Berlin photos his "pride and joy."
Several years ago, he bought scanners for his computers and
posted his Berlin photos on a Web site. The page is now one of 74
sites he operates, mostly of his various pictures, grouped by
subject matter.
In May 2004, McDaniel exchanged e-mails with Charles Huffer, who
served with the Army in Berlin between 1961-63. Huffer was working
on a project comparing scenes of Berlin today and in the past, and
McDaniel sent a link to his Web site. Huffer said McDaniel told him
his pictures would probably be destroyed after he died. Huffer also
knew Trotnow from his work in Germany, and he told the museum
director about McDaniel's pictures.
Soon after, a museum official came to Williamsport to meet
McDaniel and pick up the originals. About 50 of the photos are on
display at the museum, while others are also included in an
accompanying book about the exhibit.
McDaniel has no plans to see the exhibit, even though the museum
has offered to pay for his trip; he doesn't like to deal with long
airport lines. He also doesn't like talking much about his
experiences in the military, unless the subject is his photos.
"This is all about right here," says McDaniel, waving his
pictures in his hand.
(Chinadaily.com.cn via agencies, July 22, 2005)