The Magazine for Leica M Photography

Remembering a Generation

01/07/2018, From February 2 to April 8, 2018, the ‘f3 – Freiraum für Fotografie’ in Berlin is presenting Kriegskinder, an exhibition of works by Frederike Helwig.

“What did my parents live through when they were the age my son is today? What made them what they are today?” These are the questions explored in the Kriegskinder project by photographer Frederike Helwig and author Anne Waak. The project present 45 analogue portraits of a generation whose memories will soon disappear. Based on interview statements placed opposite the portraits of these witnesses of an era, a complex image emerges of a generation of war children who were born during the rise of National Socialism.

Those born at the end of the thirties and in the early forties, growing up during the Second World War, are now in their eighth decade. They look back and, in some cases for the first time, talk about the memories that marked them: bombs, flight, fear, hunger, illness, death, fathers who disappeared, mothers who were overburdened, but also about the silence following the war years – memories of a war that impacted various generations were supposed to be forgotten.

The book of the same title published by Hatje Cantz will appear at the same time as the exhibition.

Further information at: f3 – Freiraum für Fotografie and Frederike Helwig