Black markets and the ruins of Berlin. Long way back to America

Black markets and the ruins of Berlin. Long way back to America

In 2019 I bought negatives of an American photographer who took photographs during the Second World War at an online auction in the US.  The seller had bought them at a yard sale at one of the houses in New York. Along with the negatives were prints, a portrait of the photographer, a mailing envelope, and even the photographer's stamp. All of these items were mixed together in the dust and looked like a bag of rubbish, surprisingly quite well preserved for their time. After a bit of cleaning of all the stuff, it was possible to find out the name and destiny of the photographer. It turned out to be an American photographer Sam (Samuel) Jaffe.

After photographing in liberated France, American photographer Sam Jaffe traveled to the heart of Nazi Germany - to Berlin. Moving in convoy, the American troops entered occupied German territory. As they entered, they were greeted by a warning road sign «Entering Germany. Be on your guard. Do not fraternise with Germans». Literally just getting down from the back of an army truck, in the American sector of Berlin, Sam Jaffe started to make photographs. One of the striking images is a portrait of a US Army 3rd grade technician holding a dog house and a puppy, presumably a Riesenschnauzer breed. He also took portraits of colleagues near the 3110th Signal Service Battalion sign and the barbed wire fence at the entrance to the unit. He also asked colleagues to take a portrait of him at this location with a Leica camera around his neck.

A couple of days after his arrival, while the weather was still sunny in Berlin, Sam Jaffe went to photograph the defeated city. And of course, the first place he went to was the Soviet sector of Berlin. He visited the Reichstag building, already a symbol of victory, and photographed the Soviet plaque of honour with portraits of generals not far from from the building of Reichstag. With his American colleague, they took portraits of each other near the destroyed 88-mm air defence gun near the Reichstag, before heading to the newly opened Memorial to Fallen Soviet Soldiers in the Tiergarten.

Apart from the blown-up underground tunnel and bombed-out houses, Sam Jaffe's greatest interest was in the so-called ‘black markets’. In these spontaneous markets, anything could be bought at the time, as locals carried all their belongings for sale to survive and American soldiers sold various items from the United States. Immediately after Allied troops entered Berlin in July 1945, black markets spontaneously appeared in Tiergarten and gradually took on monstrous proportions.

After a month or two in Berlin, Sam Jaffe travelled to the north-west of Germany, to the port city of Bremerhaven with the American military by railroad, in wooden cars with ‘burzhuyka’ and stopped at stations for meals. During the war there was one of the biggest bases of the German Kriegsmarine submarine fleet in the North Sea. As a consequence, the city was subjected to extensive Allied bombing and 79% of the city was destroyed. But key parts of the harbour were deliberately preserved for further Allied supply. The area was a post-war enclave administered by the United States in the British zone of northern Germany.

In Bremerhaven, Sam Jaffe photographed the post-war life of the harbour town over a period of several months. His camera captured civilians as well as former members of the German navy. It is interesting that on their uniforms one can notice the Nazi symbols removed, but the awards and epaulettes with rank remaining.

From Bremerhaven, in early 1946, photographer Sam Jaffe sailed with other American soldiers home to America, to New York. Minutes before leaving port, he photographed the loading of machinery and American troops onto the cargo vessels Frostburg Victory and Rollins Victory, aboard which he himself would be travelling.

The journey back home would be quite long and challenging. Firstly, it would be through the harsh waters of the Atlantic Ocean, and secondly, at the time, a direct crossing of the Atlantic would take at least several weeks. On the board of Rollins Victory cargo ship Sam Jaffe photographed tired military personnel as they stepped out on deck for some fresh air and sunshine during the nice weather. Tired from a long day's sailing, they stood leaning against metal structures or sat around eating army rations.

Finally reaching New York, Sam Jaffe took a few portraits of the soldiers amongst the corps of an army unit and then went on a well-deserved break. Meanwhile, he and his friends traveled to the bustling heart of the New York city, to Manhattan: Rockefeller Center with its famous ice skating rink, Times Square with its movie theatres and shops, Broadway and 42nd Street, and of course a trip to the Statue of Liberty on Bedloe Island, which would be renamed in 1956, to what we know today, Liberty Island.