About The Photographs

When Tony Vaccaro went to war with the 83rd Infantry Division, he carried, along with his rifle, an Argus C-3 camera, and from Normandy through the Bulge fighting to the Elbe and beyond he covered the fighting in which he was involved with intimacy and authority. Afterward he recorded the occupation of Germany in photos that became ever more powerful, revealing, humane, and assured. These have recently been published by Taschen in a book called Entering Germany, 1944-1949 , from which the illustrations accompanying this article (save for that of its author and the scene of contemporary Augsburg) have been drawn. Opposite, a sergeant with the 2nd Battalion points with triumph and relief to Berlin the day after Hitler’s death.