It s probably the best fun he has had all that long, hot summer vacation from school. All of this was recorded for a postcard, complete with a Place Stamp Here print on the reverse side. Aunt Myrtle sent this card off to distant family members for inspection, just to make sure that the local excitement got properly reported. At least the German civilians forcibly escorted through the death scenes of extermination camps in 1945 had the decency to weep and protest unconvincingly that they did not know. Americans photographed these horrors of tortured, mutilated and burned bodies as an advertisement for white supremacism and popular justice .
Weeping comes now, as the images of race hatred speak silently from off gelatin paper.
As I write this, I am sobbing. I was so saddened by this, that it happened in my hometown but, most of all, that it happened anywhere. Growing up white in E. Texas 50 years ago, I remember well the prejudices toward blacks and other races. And sadder, is the fact that, I am sure there are still many prejudices in Center. Souvenir photos and postcards are a lost genre of American photography.