Here is a collection of iconic photographs of World War Two, photos that have been widely circulated. Each one is memorable, because each one captures some telling aspect of the war.
The utter helplessness, innocence, and fear of the little Jewish boy in the Warsaw Ghetto chokes me up, even though I have seen it a hundred times. Churchill's determination leaps off the page in his portrait. The flag-raising at Iwo Jima (not staged, by the way) certainly illustrates the pride, valor, and triumph of the American military in World War Two.
Times have changed; values have changed, but World War Two is still important, because its outcome has defined the world for more than fifty years. And each one of these photographs tells the viewer something, not just about that long-ago war, but about the world today. Is modern Israel an intransigent state? Maybe it is; now look at the boy in the Warsaw Ghetto. "Never again," the Israelis say. Is modern Germany pacifist, to a fault? Maybe it is; now look at the worn-out expression on that German soldier's face. "Never again," modern Germans say. Does the United States behave like the self-appointed world's policeman? Maybe it does. Now look at the flag-raising at Iwo Jima. "Making the world safe for democracy, anywhere and everywhere." That sense still impels American foreign policy.
