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Krieg: Mit den Alliierten in Europa 1944-1945. Reportagen und Fotos
The full range of Lee Miller's outstanding photographs from World War II, accompanied by her brilliant dispatches.Lee Miller's work for Vogue from 1941 to 1945 sets her apart as a photographer and writer of extraordinary ability. Her words combine immediacy with acute observation, and deep personal involvement with professional detachment. Complementing her writing here are two hundred remarkable photographs from the Lee Miller Archives. They show war-ravaged cities, buildings, and landscapes; but above all they portray war-resilient people—soldiers, leaders, medics, evacuees, prisoners of war, the wounded, the villains, and the heroes.There is the raw edge of combat portrayed at the siege of St. Malo and in the bitterly fought Alsace campaign, and the disbelief and outrage Miller describes on witnessing the victims of Dachau. The war's horror is relieved by the spirit of postliberation Paris, where she indulged in frivolous fashions and recorded memorable conversations with Picasso, Cocteau, Eluard, Aragon, and Colette. The book ends with Miller's on-the-scene report giving a sardonic description of Hitler's abandoned house in Munich and the looting and burning of his alpine fortress at Berchtesgaden, which marked a symbolic end to the war. 160 duotone illustrations.
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First published June 1, 1992
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
January 23, 2018
da farci la firma. bella, una classe da paura, prima modella poi fotografa, una relazione con sua altezza la fotografia, aka man ray. giovanissima (ma con già alle spalle una violenza sessuale che non si è mai capito del tutto se perpetrata dal padre) rischia di essere investita da un auto mentre attraversa una strada di manhattan. siamo nel 1926. un passante la salva all'ultimo trattenendola per un braccio, e rimane senza parole di fronte al suo portamento, alla sua aria aristocratica, al suo modo di vestire. fosse stato un passante qualunque, la storia sarebbe finita lì. ma, guess what, lui è mr. condé nast, ovvero l'editore di vogue e vanity fair, che le offre un contratto da fotomodella.
sembra una sceneggiatura da film rosa, e invece è cronaca. molto (ma molto) meno banale di una commedia. perché la ragazza ha talento, e inizia a voler essere colei che scatta e non l'oggetto del clic. alla fine degli anni '20 posa per una pubblicità di assorbenti, e la provocazione è tale che i set fotografici li deve abbandonare per forza. salpa per parigi e convince man ray a prenderla come allieva, salvo poi diventarne collaboratrice, amante, musa. ancora una volta, fosse finita qui. e invece.
per farla breve miller lascerà anche gli scatti di moda (lavoretti per le seconde file... cosucce per maison gregarie come elsa schiaparelli e coco chanel) e nel 1942 parte per il fronte - ecco le foto di questo volume - e viene riconosciuta dall'esercito americano come corrispondente di guerra per l'editore condé nast. come dire che lavora sempre per vogue, ma invece degli abiti haute couture documenta l'uso del napalm a saint-malo. senza contare che diventa celeberrima una foto scattata da david scherman, reporter di life con cui ha una relazione (la gnocchitudine mica gliel'avevano levata), che la ritrae nella vasca da bagno della casa di hitler a monaco, dopo la liberazione della città.
una che avrebbe potuto tirarsela, insomma. e invece in tutto questo e in quello che seguì (compresa l'assidua frequentazione del mondo artistico, da picasso a cocteau a éluard) lee miller non si preoccupò di farsi pubblicità e non si scompose mai per far parlare di sé. tanto che il successo e il riconoscimento su larga scala del suo lavoro arrivarono, parecchi anni più tardi, grazie all'impegno del figlio, autore anche di questo volume.
serve altro?
(ah, sì, è il volto del mio avatar preferito. quello a cui torno sempre, prima o poi. ma non credo che nella sua bibliografia entrerà mai, mannaggia).
sembra una sceneggiatura da film rosa, e invece è cronaca. molto (ma molto) meno banale di una commedia. perché la ragazza ha talento, e inizia a voler essere colei che scatta e non l'oggetto del clic. alla fine degli anni '20 posa per una pubblicità di assorbenti, e la provocazione è tale che i set fotografici li deve abbandonare per forza. salpa per parigi e convince man ray a prenderla come allieva, salvo poi diventarne collaboratrice, amante, musa. ancora una volta, fosse finita qui. e invece.
per farla breve miller lascerà anche gli scatti di moda (lavoretti per le seconde file... cosucce per maison gregarie come elsa schiaparelli e coco chanel) e nel 1942 parte per il fronte - ecco le foto di questo volume - e viene riconosciuta dall'esercito americano come corrispondente di guerra per l'editore condé nast. come dire che lavora sempre per vogue, ma invece degli abiti haute couture documenta l'uso del napalm a saint-malo. senza contare che diventa celeberrima una foto scattata da david scherman, reporter di life con cui ha una relazione (la gnocchitudine mica gliel'avevano levata), che la ritrae nella vasca da bagno della casa di hitler a monaco, dopo la liberazione della città.
una che avrebbe potuto tirarsela, insomma. e invece in tutto questo e in quello che seguì (compresa l'assidua frequentazione del mondo artistico, da picasso a cocteau a éluard) lee miller non si preoccupò di farsi pubblicità e non si scompose mai per far parlare di sé. tanto che il successo e il riconoscimento su larga scala del suo lavoro arrivarono, parecchi anni più tardi, grazie all'impegno del figlio, autore anche di questo volume.
serve altro?
(ah, sì, è il volto del mio avatar preferito. quello a cui torno sempre, prima o poi. ma non credo che nella sua bibliografia entrerà mai, mannaggia).
Read
February 13, 2024Essential reading to understand Lee Miller's importance as a journalist
In a half-century career of journalism focused on religious and cultural diversity around the world, I have read countless books about World War II, the Holocaust and related issues. I have saved more than 200 essential books in my library and now this volume sits on those shelves.
I am not alone in recognizing the unique voice and value in Lee Miller's WWII reporting. A year or so ago, I read my way through the 2,000 pages of the Library of America's Reporting World War II two-volume set of journalism from those years. Two pieces that stood out for me in that boxed set were by Lee Miller, The Siege of St. Malo and U.S.A Tent Hospital. At that time, I was struck by her magazine-style narrative that invites readers to walk along with her, wherever she happens to be going.
Now, I can say that I have read a great deal more of Miller's surviving wartime dispatches, thanks to this volume, which is one of many prepared by Lee's son Antony Penrose. Penrose also is a talented photographer and the director of the Lee Miller Archives. In 2024, I'm on a mission to explore the many facets of Miller's life through reading five books about her, a reading-quest that I explained in more detail in my earlier review of Lee Miller: A Life . I also reviewed Lee Miller: Photographs in which Antony Penrose collaborated with Kate Winslet, whose new movie Lee still has not become available in the U.S. So, this is my third of three Miller book reviews that are now posted in Goodreads.
For anyone who cares about the World War II era, and especially for readers who know a good deal about this era already, this is an absolutely fascinating book!
As I say, I already had sampled Miller's style of journalism in the Library of America boxed set. She was not known as an international-class journalist until World War II, but she certainly understood the toolbox of good journalism. I counted a dozen classic journalistic techniques in the first couple of articles and then simply became so engrossed in he stories themselves that I wasn't concentrating as closely on her technical virtuosity. The best way to sum this up simply is to say: Lee Miller today could write cover stories for major contemporary magazines like Vanity Fair or The Atlantic.
One of the great strengths of Miller's reporting is that she is far more interested in the multitude of people traumatically displaced by the war—including women, children, wounded GIs, refugees, prisoners of war and families trying to dig out of the rubble.
But she also had an enormous advantage over other war-time correspondents: She was a celebrity herself. In these feature stories and shorter dispatches, for example—when she runs across Maurice Chevalier, he already knows her. You may recall Chevalier as a quintessentially French song-and-dance man who was very popular in classic Hollywood musicals as well. However, immediately after the war, there was a major controversy over whether he was a collaborator with the Germans or whether he used his celebrity to support the resistance movement. Miller's dispatch on meeting Chevalier neatly captures the swirling rumors as well as the vigorous efforts to restore his reputation.
Of course, Miller is also known for her grim photographs from liberated death camps and that is one relatively brief section within this overall book. And, yes, Penrose did choose to include a half dozen stunning death-camp photographs that are very difficult to look at—hauntingly brutal. I had seen some of those photos before, but what I had not read was her reporting on this phase of the war. So, although brief, that section definitely stands out.
To understand the many lives of Lee Miller, I now consider this an essential book. And, for anyone who cares about the impact of World War II, especially after D-Day, then this also should be considered a must-read, first-hand account.
If you are interested in Lee Miller, look for two more reviews of Miller books from me in 2024.
In a half-century career of journalism focused on religious and cultural diversity around the world, I have read countless books about World War II, the Holocaust and related issues. I have saved more than 200 essential books in my library and now this volume sits on those shelves.
I am not alone in recognizing the unique voice and value in Lee Miller's WWII reporting. A year or so ago, I read my way through the 2,000 pages of the Library of America's Reporting World War II two-volume set of journalism from those years. Two pieces that stood out for me in that boxed set were by Lee Miller, The Siege of St. Malo and U.S.A Tent Hospital. At that time, I was struck by her magazine-style narrative that invites readers to walk along with her, wherever she happens to be going.
Now, I can say that I have read a great deal more of Miller's surviving wartime dispatches, thanks to this volume, which is one of many prepared by Lee's son Antony Penrose. Penrose also is a talented photographer and the director of the Lee Miller Archives. In 2024, I'm on a mission to explore the many facets of Miller's life through reading five books about her, a reading-quest that I explained in more detail in my earlier review of Lee Miller: A Life . I also reviewed Lee Miller: Photographs in which Antony Penrose collaborated with Kate Winslet, whose new movie Lee still has not become available in the U.S. So, this is my third of three Miller book reviews that are now posted in Goodreads.
For anyone who cares about the World War II era, and especially for readers who know a good deal about this era already, this is an absolutely fascinating book!
As I say, I already had sampled Miller's style of journalism in the Library of America boxed set. She was not known as an international-class journalist until World War II, but she certainly understood the toolbox of good journalism. I counted a dozen classic journalistic techniques in the first couple of articles and then simply became so engrossed in he stories themselves that I wasn't concentrating as closely on her technical virtuosity. The best way to sum this up simply is to say: Lee Miller today could write cover stories for major contemporary magazines like Vanity Fair or The Atlantic.
One of the great strengths of Miller's reporting is that she is far more interested in the multitude of people traumatically displaced by the war—including women, children, wounded GIs, refugees, prisoners of war and families trying to dig out of the rubble.
But she also had an enormous advantage over other war-time correspondents: She was a celebrity herself. In these feature stories and shorter dispatches, for example—when she runs across Maurice Chevalier, he already knows her. You may recall Chevalier as a quintessentially French song-and-dance man who was very popular in classic Hollywood musicals as well. However, immediately after the war, there was a major controversy over whether he was a collaborator with the Germans or whether he used his celebrity to support the resistance movement. Miller's dispatch on meeting Chevalier neatly captures the swirling rumors as well as the vigorous efforts to restore his reputation.
Of course, Miller is also known for her grim photographs from liberated death camps and that is one relatively brief section within this overall book. And, yes, Penrose did choose to include a half dozen stunning death-camp photographs that are very difficult to look at—hauntingly brutal. I had seen some of those photos before, but what I had not read was her reporting on this phase of the war. So, although brief, that section definitely stands out.
To understand the many lives of Lee Miller, I now consider this an essential book. And, for anyone who cares about the impact of World War II, especially after D-Day, then this also should be considered a must-read, first-hand account.
If you are interested in Lee Miller, look for two more reviews of Miller books from me in 2024.
January 11, 2014
Lee Miller is a badass.
May 4, 2016
I have long thought that Lee Miller was the most talented photographer in the U. S. ETO during World War II; but I had never suspected that she was such an astoundingly brilliant writer – imagine Ernie Pyle with a camera – but not just a camera but also the eye to go with it & the technical skills from having worked with (and loved) Man Ray in pre-war Paris. LEE MILLER’S WAR: BEYOND D-DAY, is a collection of extraordinary writings. Her descriptions of the liberations of Buchenwald and Dachau are the most poignant first-person accounts I have ever read. Miller’s prose is equal to that of A.J. Liebling and Pyle. Here’s a sample: “The farmyards are hung with maize seed corn, drying tobacco, onions in garlands. The woodpiles are high and near and the hutches are full of snivelling rabbits which are conscientiously fed and fattened by the local occupying soldiers with an eye to their own larder if they stay and an instinct to feed the innocent in between their moments of slaughter.”
December 6, 2024
Fantastic photo book, with insights from Lee Miller herself of what she encountered as a photo journalist 1944-45 from not only a woman’s perspective but with a talent that surpasses her male contemporaries of the time. The 2024 movie ‘Lee’ is well made by Kate Winslet who worked for many years with Lee Millers son Antony Penrose, finally getting her story to the screen. Worth seeing.
September 3, 2013
It is a classic case of discovering a forgotten genius. She was a superb writer, diligent, smart observer, a reporter with helluva guts in her trousers. Some of her writings have found their way onto the pages of the wartime Vogue, but quite a lot was never published and remained locked inside her Farley Farm House attic. The same applies to the photographs she has taken. This book is a little labour of love on behalf of her son. Lee Miller, although her family roots were German, has developed pathological hatred of that nation through her war experiences. If you see Miller's concentration camps photos, you cannot blame her. However, Max Ernst remained a close friend and they were seeing each other until his death. The book is superb, highly recommended. It is very non-PC though, in its description of the wartime enemy.
August 23, 2015
As a friend said recently, World War 2 created giants. Lee Mille was one of them. Of all things, a Vogue photographer, she joined US forces after D-Day and followed them all the way to Paris, over the Rhine, to Dachau and and up to Berchtesgaden soon after it was taken. She took a bath in Hitler's tub in Munich, went through Eva Braun's house and wrote about what she had on her dressing table. One of the best books I've read about the war. Highly detailed, nearly stream-of-conscious writing that were her articles for Vogue, which is very hard to believe. She saw things as US troops were mopping, saw the dead and still dying at Dachau. Beyond that, she hung out with the greats of her time. There just do not seem to be giants like this anymore. A great loss for civilization.
July 6, 2018
We have all read books, watched movies and visited sites of the 2nd World war. And we have all been moved by it. Especially after Yann Martel’s rendition of this war in his book Beatrice and Virgil, I was under the impression that I now have been subjected to the full scope of horrors. Not so. Lee Miller, ever so unassumingly, ever so casually- with both her writing as well as her photography- reveals the daily hardships endured by all.
My admiration of her and her work knows no bounds.
My admiration of her and her work knows no bounds.
February 21, 2012
Dear Mr Penrose,
Thank you for publishing this awesome book about your mother. She is one of my heroes. What a fantastic woman, fantastic writer and photographer. Thank you for sharing her insights, beauty, words, and view of the world with all of us.
N.
Thank you for publishing this awesome book about your mother. She is one of my heroes. What a fantastic woman, fantastic writer and photographer. Thank you for sharing her insights, beauty, words, and view of the world with all of us.
N.
December 17, 2018
An excellent collection of photos and history on Lee Miller who broke the rules to be a female war photographer during World War II.
June 11, 2024
Wrote the most deranged essay on this + Brecht's Kriegsfibel and my argument made no sense but both books taught me lot. And aesthetically super interesting. Love the way Lee writes
December 23, 2025
Detailed accounting of the Nazis as their world becomes smaller and smaller with accompanying photos. Amazing.
August 22, 2025
Maybe even better than ‘The Lives of Lee Miller’. Her dispatches written August 1944 - May 1945 when she was following the American forces through France, Luxemburg and Germany with memorable meetings in Paris and unforgettable views in Buchenwald. A book that gets better and better and with very perceptive prose about for example the locals especially the Germans she meets. Prose and photographs alternate and are well balanced. Well edited by her son Tony Penrose.
March 22, 2025
After seeing the movie, "Lee", I was interested in seeing what Lee Miller's war-time reports were like for Vogue magazine.
This book contains some of those articles, with accompanying photos, from "on the ground" in France and Germany, after D-Day. She covers the siege at St Malo, and conditions in Paris and Alsace after liberation. She spends time in Hitler's apartment in Munich: "I was living in Hitler's private apartment in Munich when his death was announced." (Wow!)
The articles are all fascinating insights into the chaos and horrors of WW2. The photos from Dachau are sobering, to say the least.
Sometimes I found her use of slang or jargon a bit hard to follow, but I think a careful re-read on my part will clarify.
4 stars
This book contains some of those articles, with accompanying photos, from "on the ground" in France and Germany, after D-Day. She covers the siege at St Malo, and conditions in Paris and Alsace after liberation. She spends time in Hitler's apartment in Munich: "I was living in Hitler's private apartment in Munich when his death was announced." (Wow!)
The articles are all fascinating insights into the chaos and horrors of WW2. The photos from Dachau are sobering, to say the least.
Sometimes I found her use of slang or jargon a bit hard to follow, but I think a careful re-read on my part will clarify.
4 stars
November 13, 2025
such a brilliant woman with beautiful, haunting, and honest photography, also a DAMN good writer wow
4.5 ⭐️
"Rich retired villa-owners, conservative boardinghouse-keepers, middle-class successful, tenacious bond-owners, had interest in supporting a party which promised them security. The type of person who clips his share coupons or reads the ticker tape for marketing profits without asking if the mine is a swindle or the dividends drawn from capital lived here. They bought Hitler on the same terms and are very shocked to find themselves the 'widows and orphans' of a bucket-shop scheme. They expect sympathy from us for having been accomplices of crooks and receivers of stolen goods."
Yet again, repetition of history, as quoted from a primary. source.
also also happy international women's day -- a coincidence I read this today, but very fitting
4.5 ⭐️
"Rich retired villa-owners, conservative boardinghouse-keepers, middle-class successful, tenacious bond-owners, had interest in supporting a party which promised them security. The type of person who clips his share coupons or reads the ticker tape for marketing profits without asking if the mine is a swindle or the dividends drawn from capital lived here. They bought Hitler on the same terms and are very shocked to find themselves the 'widows and orphans' of a bucket-shop scheme. They expect sympathy from us for having been accomplices of crooks and receivers of stolen goods."
Yet again, repetition of history, as quoted from a primary. source.
also also happy international women's day -- a coincidence I read this today, but very fitting
December 27, 2020
Mich hat ihr Schreibstil sehr beeindruckt. Zudem war sie die einzige Frau während dem zweiten Weltkrieg, die Reportagen veröffentlichen durfte. Zudem sind ihre Bilder von Erfahrungen geprägt. Nur zum empfehlen
May 27, 2025
At the start she is a society girl having jolly fun playing at war. Then she has a grand time with lots of famous people in Paris. After Paris she becomes more serious, but after a while she just starts listing events.
November 3, 2024
Remarkable account of the last months of World War II as seen and photographed by Lee Miller. There are so many haunting photos, especially Hitler’s private apartment.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews