1JZGauQ
Share Embed Flag
Download ePaper

1JZGauQ

1JZGauQ 1JZGauQ

larrysa
01.02.2015 Views

5: CASE STUDY 2: THE CZECH/AUSTRIAN BORDER A best practice manual from 1978 demonstrates how soldiers were to respond to an attempt of escape through the border areas (Figure 98). The manual, of 10 pages, of a mock escape situation has some written instructions but is mainly made up of 34 black and white photos glued into the folder demonstrating information like: what equipment to be used, such as weapons, dogs and vehicles; how to trace an escapee, showing soldiers looking for footprints, recording a hat lost by the escapee and allowing dogs to follow the trace; recording the information and reporting to headquarters and eventually the discovery and arrest of the escapee, a scene demonstrated in the picture by a soldier, with a dog at his feet, pointing his gun at a man with his hands up in the air. Figure 98: Page from Best Practice Manual. Military Archives Brno. Some of the material does not need any words. More pictures than I like to remember have showed the failed attempts of people trying to cross the 173

AN ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE IRON CURTAIN border. Although I find none of these pictures from my study area they appear at times in the archive materials of other parts as I sift through the documents. Their bodies sprawled across the ground or stuck in a fence, arms and legs in awkward angles, dead eyes staring into nothing. The pictures are taken in all directions to make sure not to leave any clues out. These pictures of dead accompanied by detailed maps and descriptions of the persons movement across the landscape in order to upgrade and improve security in the apparently weak points these files were then circulated and eventually ended up in this archive. I have not included any of these pictures as I do not think they would add anything to the study and therefore I do not consider it to be ethically correct. Here I think there is a difference to how we instinctively approach a material that is more recent rather than if we were to excavate or use pictures of an older skeleton where one can question if it is at all unethical to publish photographs of the dead. With prehistoric skeletons it is simply easier to distance oneself (Nordström 2007:20). That we have a complicated relationship with death becomes clear in archaeologist Mike Parker Pearson’s example of two news stories published on the same day (24 th May 1991): “One is from the Guardian, a national newspaper, about the discovery of a 1200–1500-year old skeleton in Southwark in south London, found during archaeological excavations in advance of development. Alongside a close-up photograph of a trepanned skull, the article enthuses about the discovery and what may be learned from it. The other report is from the local North Norfold News about 500- 1000-year old human bones from a ruined medieval churchyard eroding out of the sea cliff at Eccles. There appears to have been no archaeological involvement but some of the bones had been taken by souvenir hunters. The manager of a nearby holiday camp is quoted to have said that people who took the bones ‘must be sick’” (Parker Pearson 2003:183–184). This demonstrates the difficulty we have in our approach to death. The added complication of portraying death in more recent times is the issue of the possibility of friends or relatives of the deceased that can recognise and take offence to the publication of the picture. My approach has, therefore, been to think if a picture would add something imperative to the discussion and on this occasion I found that it would not. This does not mean they did not affect me and the way I looked at my research. The stories of those who did not make it over the border are as important as any other stories that have arisen out of this material. Occasionally, however, I came across a report where a person had actually got through the fine-tuned safety net of the Iron Curtain. The reports contained long descriptions and maps demon- 174

5: CASE STUDY 2: THE CZECH/AUSTRIAN BORDER<br />

A best practice manual from 1978 demonstrates how soldiers were to<br />

respond to an attempt of escape through the border areas (Figure 98). The<br />

manual, of 10 pages, of a mock escape situation has some written instructions<br />

but is mainly made up of 34 black and white photos glued into the<br />

folder demonstrating information like: what equipment to be used, such as<br />

weapons, dogs and vehicles; how to trace an escapee, showing soldiers<br />

looking for footprints, recording a hat lost by the escapee and allowing dogs<br />

to follow the trace; recording the information and reporting to headquarters<br />

and eventually the discovery and arrest of the escapee, a scene demonstrated<br />

in the picture by a soldier, with a dog at his feet, pointing his gun at a man<br />

with his hands up in the air.<br />

Figure 98: Page from Best<br />

Practice Manual. Military<br />

Archives Brno.<br />

Some of the material does not need any words. More pictures than I like to<br />

remember have showed the failed attempts of people trying to cross the<br />

173

logo

products

Resources

Company

Terms of service
Privacy policy
Cookie policy
Cookie settings
Imprint
Change language
Made with love in Switzerland
© 2024 Yumpu.com all rights reserved

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!