Depicting Displacement and Humanitarian Crisis

• Main Author: Spraggs, Hannah
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Uppsala universitet, Historiska institutionen 2020
• Subjects: History; Historia
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-411012

This study aims to provide an Anglo-Swedish perspective on displacement and humanitarian crisisin post-war Europe through an analysis of photographs and supporting text published by Swedishand British pictorial magazines Se and Picture Post during the period 1945 – 1946. The researchexplores photographs concerning the themes of fallen destiny and fate, humanitarian relief,organisation of displaced persons and civilians rising from ruin. The study questions how Sweden’swartime position of neutrality and Britain’s wartime anti-axis, anti-fascist position affected the wayin which Se and Picture Post, two media organisations loyal to their states and part of a bigger medialandscape, presented their outlook, role and actions on the humanitarian and displacement crisis inpost-war Europe. The study seeks to highlight the importance of the photograph as a usefulhistorical source for historians in understanding mentalities and ideologies of Swedish and Britishmedia organisations in post-war Europe, a source that has often been overlooked. The findings ofthe study show that Se remained mostly positive throughout the post-war period by displayingimages of camp survivors and heroic Swedish humanitarian workers. The reason for this was thatthe editors of Se wanted to continually promote and support Swedish national prestige by depictingSweden as a moral superpower. Se aimed to show support for the national government’s decisionto stand politically neutral during the war, a decision which made it possible to perform rescuemissions in wartime and offer humanitarian support in post-war Europe. In contrast, Picture Postconsciously chose to repeatedly present images of disillusioned Germans, famine and suffering,civic resilience, re-education of Germans and hopeful Jewish survivors in order to blame Germany for the misery that war had created and thus present Britain as the victorious power.