Оккупированный Харьков (Харків) в цвете
1942
Фотографии Иоанн Hähle

Occupied Kharkov (Kharkiv) in colour
1942
Photographs by Johannes Hähle

Music:
From the Trio for Violin, Cello & Piano by Anton Arensky

Here I present a series of colour photographs of war-torn Kharkov (Kharkiv) taken in the Spring or Summer of 1942.
The City had been seized on October 24, 1941 and had, by 1942, a sizeable German population. The photographs shows Kharkov (Kharkiv) relatively intact, before the great battles for the city in February-March 1943.
The Photographer was the German, Johannes Hähle.  In 1932 he joined the Nazi Party. In January 1940 he was drafted to the Wehrmacht and sent to the Battle of France with the Baubataillon 146. With the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 Hähle was posted to Propagandakompanie (PK) 637 to the Eastern Front to serve as a war photographer with the 6th Army. In the early part of 1942, Hähle arrived in Kharkov…… Later, in the summer of 1942, he was wounded and spent several weeks in…