Coast of France, June 1944

A solemn anniversary. New-to-us terrific photographs.

"It's no mystery why images of shocking, unremitting violence spring to mind when one hears the deceptively simple term, "D-Day." We've all seen -- in black-and-white photos, movies, old news reels -- what happened on the beaches of Normandy as the Allies unleashed an historic assault against German defenses on June 6, 1944.

But in rare, color photos taken before and after the invasion, LIFE photographer Frank Scherschel captured countless other, lesser-known scenes from the run-up to the onslaught and the heady weeks after: American troops training in small English towns; the French countryside, implausibly lush after the spectral landscape of the beachheads; the reception GIs enjoyed en route to the capital; the liberation of Paris. As presented here, in masterfully restored color on the anniversary of D-Day, Scherschel's pictures feel at-once profoundly familiar and somehow utterly, vividly new." - via LIFE.

See the gallery here.

November 9/10, 1938

On 9 November, the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the Anne Frank House will present the Anne Frank timeline a visual timeline in which Anne Frank’s story is placed in the context of important historical events. The Anne Frank Timeline starts in 1914 with the outbreak of World War One and Otto Frank’s conscription into the German army and continues through to today including the significance of the diary and the Anne Frank House.

The Anne Frank Timeline includes exceptional photographs and audio and video fragments. There is a TV interview with Simon Wiesenthal about his search for Karl Silberbauer, the SS officer who arrested Anne Frank and the others in hiding. There are also images taken in Amsterdam showing Jewish refugees from Germany who were taken in after the Kristallnacht. The timeline also includes fragments of radio broadcasts from Dutch radio stations with one of Otto Frank speaking at the opening of the Anne Frank House on 3 May 1960. (via Anne Frank House)

(photograph by D Sharon Pruitt)

June 6, 1945 - Only the beginning

A few rather non-related images for this post; it was not exactly a coherent moment in time, anyway. There are so many wonderful sites, both news & blogs, that will be covering today's very important 65th anniversary. (And we just realized that we're supposed to be at the WWII Memorial on Saturday. Here is the link to the excellent National WWII Memorial website here in Washington, DC.)

The black & white photographs are courtesy of the Google-hosted LIFE archives. The terrific Yannick Vigouroux shot of the beach at Luc-sur-Mer was taken 1 June 2009. The series of photographs starts with Yannick's beach & goes back in time. GIs playing with children & talking to French citizens that day & the day after the invasion. The last photograph is servicemen playing poker on a dock in England, waiting to leave for Normandy. It is simply too much to comprehend how terrified they must have been & to wonder how many in that photograph survived the first hour, or moments, of the invasion.

Remember that WWII veterans are passing away at the rate of approximately 1,000 a day (in America). Time is running out to hear their stories, to pay your respects, & to say thank you while they're still able to hear it. Also, as great & successful as this largest invasion in history was, the knowledge of what was to come is sobering.

[Click on Yannick's panoramic shot of Luc-sur-mer to see a larger print or click on his name above to the full-size. The colors & pan shot are superb. Update: Tuesday, 30 June 2009. Time's up for clicking here. Please go to Yannick's flickr set. Thanks!]

Flowery window in Strasbourg - Week's End

We're sure we'd feel so much better here at GG Central if we had our empty flower box filled with these geraniums (or coral ones, perhaps). Busy working on D-Day material, so we'll see you Saturday. Of course, Strasbourg was right in the thick of it during the battle to liberate France, as the Allies moved eastward. GG's editor lived but a few hundred meters from Nazi bunkers; her bedroom, & indeed the entire building, had been occupied by the Germans 30 years before. We swear there were ghosts. France is much on our mind this week, this summer. [photograph used by permission from the lovely & talented Pipernille in Helsinki, see here for her photograph sets.]

ciao-bonjour-meow/GG/mgmt