Johannes Hähle (15 February 1906 – 10 June 1944) was a German military photographer who served in the

Wehrmacht Propaganda Troops Propaganda Troops (german: Wehrmachtpropaganda, abbreviated as ') was a branch of service of the and the of Nazi Germany during World War II. Subordinated to the High Command of the (the '), its function was to produce and disseminate propagan ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

Life

Hähle made a training as merchant and photographer. In 1932 he joined the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...

. In January 1940 he was drafted to the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the '' Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previo ...

and sent to the Battle of France with the Baubataillon 146. With the

invasion of the Soviet Union Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named afte ...

in June 1941 Hähle was posted to Propagandakompanie (PK) 637 to the Eastern Front to serve as a war photographer with the 6th Army. During that time he took many photos of the war from both the air and the ground. In September 1941 he was sent to a PK unit in

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and, with around 183,000 inhabitants, largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream o ...

. At the end of September 1941 he took photos from the aftermath of the massacre of Babi Yar and another massacre near

Lubny Lubny ( uk, Лубни́, ), is a city in Poltava Oblast (province) of central Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center of Lubny Raion (district), the city itself is administratively incorporated as a city of oblast significance and does no ...

. He took 29 colour photos but did not deliver them to his unit, instead keeping them private. Hähle was wounded in the summer of 1942 and spent several weeks in hospital. During winter 1942/1943 Hähle was a war photographer with Rommel's

Afrika Korps The Afrika Korps or German Africa Corps (, }; DAK) was the German expeditionary force in Africa during the North African Campaign of World War II. First sent as a holding force to shore up the Italian defense of its African colonies, the ...

, but was sent back to German occupied Western Europe some months later to serve with PK 698 in Belgium and Northern France. Here he shot photos of the Atlantic Wall. During the combat after the

Normandy landings The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allies of World War II, Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and ...

Hähle died on 10 June 1944 in the village of La Bijude in the north-west of Caen under unclear circumstances.

Aftermath

At the end of the war American troops confiscated several lorries with material from the German propaganda units (Propagandakompanien). In 1962 the Americans passed the material to the German Federal Archives in Koblenz, together with an amount of Hähle's films. The films that Hähle kept private were sold by his widow to the Berlin journalist Hans Georg Schulz. Black and white copies of those photos were used as evidence by the Frankfurt prosecution in 1961 and vanished in an archive later. The original colour photos appeared again in 2000 when Schulz' widow sold them to the

Hamburg Institute for Social Research The Hamburg Institute for Social Research is an independent private foundation whose scholarship is focused on both contemporary history and the social sciences. Founded in 1984 by Jan Philipp Reemtsma, it currently employs about 50 people with ...

which was able then to complete its photographic collection for the Wehrmachtsausstellung exhibition.

External links

Hähle's colour photos from Kiew and Babi Yar

(German) * ttp://einestages.spiegel.de/external/ShowTopicAlbumBackground/a6182/l20/l0/F.html#featuredEntry Spiegel Online einestages: ''Fotofund aus dem Zweiten Weltkrieg: Das Geheimnis des fliegenden Auges''(German) {{DEFAULTSORT:Haehle, Johannes German military personnel killed in World War II Photographers from Saxony War photographers 1906 births 1944 deaths War correspondents of World War II People from Chemnitz People from the Kingdom of Saxony Witnesses to The Holocaust German Army soldiers of World War II Military personnel from Chemnitz