Whether we appreciate it or not the burden of history is a social, cultural and political construct that we must all manage. Years before we can fully comprehend the complexities of history, we land on the receiving end of customs and ideologies passed down from previous generations. Dealing with this mode of tradition is one of the issues addressed in “Ratline,” a series of color photographs by Tina Schula that use fiction and personal anecdotes to examine how a family negotiates its relationship to Nazi history. These tableaux serve as a metaphor for the global persistence, yet covert status of Nazi fundamentalism and consider larger family and identity issues. Below is the first half of our conversation.
By Amani Olu
WHITEWALL: Can you explain your project “Ratline,” where the term originates?
TINA SCHULA: My work is about the resonance of the post war era. The images are set in a distant past, somewhere in the late 1970s, a time when there was a lot of media coverage about Nazis in hiding. The term ‘Ratline’ has been used by the US military to describe a system of escape routes for War criminals in a denied or enemy-held territory. After 1940 the term was frequently associated with specific routes and activities of Nazi criminals in eastern and southern Europe attempting to flee prosecution at the end and after WWII.
WW: In one of your photographs there is a woman giving a Nazi salute. What is the story behind this image?
TS: The idea for my series “Ratline” came about when my mother told me about an incident within my wider family. An old aunt suddenly stood up during a coffee table re-union, stretched out her right arm and shouted “Mein Führer.” She was never a member of the Nazi party but apparently she was remembering her Hitler youth. Up until that moment no one in the family knew about her political past. I was told that no one at the table questioned her and everyone just went silent. Partly out of embarrassment, partly out of fear, I suppose. The story triggered something strong inside me. It says a lot about the psychic presence of our past and how we deal with it or try to avoid it.
WW: How much, if any, of your work is a metaphor for your own feelings about Austria’s history with the Nazi regime?
TS: I do not see my work as a metaphor for my feelings about Austria’s Nazi past. Of course it relates to my upbringing there, my education, the culture I was exposed to, the mentality of the people, my concerns about Austria’s politics today [and] looking at Austria since I left Vienna almost 15 years ago. My work is about the problem of persisting Nazi ideology everywhere. The problem is universal. Nazi thinking is still present in our society. It has undergone a major disguise. Many of its supporters can now be found among the extreme political right all over the world. Their language, their appearances might have changed but the core of their ideology remains the same.
WW: In February 2009 The New York Times ran an article on the life and alleged death of the Austrian, Schutzstaffel doctor Alibert Heim, also known as “Dr. Death” for his inhumane treatment of inmates at Nazi concentration camps in Mauthausen. How does continued media coverage and public interest in top-level Nazi officials reflect on your project?
TS: When I read the article on Dr. Death in The New York Times I was excited. It confirmed my belief that my series does have a wider social relevance. I knew I was onto something significant. Then I saw the murky interviews Dr. Heim’s son gave to a German TV station and it reinforced some of my ideas about the dilemma of a divided family forced to deal with a family member’s criminal past.
