Stellungswechsel! Flughafen Waalhaven! 1940 - 1941

This is an anonymous photograph, pasted into an album, titled "Stellungswechsel! Flughafen Waalhaven!" The photograph depicts German soldiers at Waalhaven Airport, likely taken during the invasion of the Netherlands in May 1940. We can read the image for the socio-political context of the time, a record of military occupation and the assertion of power. The images are a snapshot of a specific moment in a larger historical narrative, marking a brutal moment in the history of the Netherlands, and Europe as a whole. They also reveal the banality of that moment, and the attempt to record it for posterity. The album itself becomes a kind of archive, reflecting the social conditions of its creation. Historical interpretation requires a critical approach to photographic records like these, examining sources such as military archives, personal accounts, and institutional records to understand its complexities. Only then can we fully appreciate the meaning of this image as a product of its time.