Kharkov, 1943

A German soldier, one of the terrible Waffen SS, is smoking a cigarette while looking far away in a snowy landscape. Germans captured, lost, retook and then lost the strategic eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkov. Many of them died in the furious battles that ensued. There is no endorsement of this soldier’s party, that’s obvious. But his pride, his defiant look at the enemy’s lines, are respectful. This was an actual photograph, likely this man died in a short time after this photograph. He had no future. He knew. He blew smoke, and then he fought. This image belongs to the category of the poetry of war. Someone can understand.