Re the recent postings about Nabokov in Berlin, iby chance I just received these unpublished color photos of the Nazi Germany that V&V fled before World War II exploded. The sender is incorrect in saying that Life is no longer published.

In a way, I was reluctant to forward photographs with this Nazi theme, but then I wanted Nabokovians, most all of them far too young, I judge, to see what V&V were up against in the 30s and 40s with the totalitarian regimes of Hitler --- and Stalin.

Yes, Nabokovians can go back to read that about horrendous time, but print is bland stuff if one has not seen the face of tyranny first hand. Seeing this pageantry, adulation, and mass hysteria in color, even 80 years after the fact, is another matter. At the very least, perhaps the photos will give Nabokovians insight into the composition of The Real Life of Sebastian Knight written in 1938 and what Vlad. ;ater came up against with Edmund Wilson.

RHB

Begin forwarded message:

From: Dick Needham

What a bit of history. These photos were found by a nurse in a Berlin
hospital, who kept them put away during all these years. After her death
her daughter returned them to the current editors at Time-Life, who retain the
copyrights to Life magazine, which has not been published since the
'70s.

These pictures were taken by a Life photographer between 1939 and 1940
and were lost for more than 50 years because the American
photographer disappeared at the beginning of the war, along with his
Roliflex camera.

All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both co-editors.

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