Een Wehrmacht soldaat met een kind op zijn arm op een bruggetje Possibly 1940 - 1945

This small photograph, whose maker is unknown, captures a Wehrmacht soldier holding a child on a bridge, and resides in the Rijksmuseum. I’m thinking about that bridge, a tiny stage for a brief encounter, its wooden planks worn smooth by time and untold stories. I wonder about the photographer, the unseen hand freezing this moment. What were they thinking, framing this odd couple against a neutral sky? The soldier looks like a child himself in his awkward attire, a costume in the theater of war. And that kid, oblivious, trusting. The graininess of the print, the soft focus—it all lends a dreamlike quality, as if this never really happened, a memory half-forgotten. That soldier, did he survive the war? Did he ever think about this moment again? Does it haunt him, or is it a forgotten blip on the radar of history? There are infinite questions hovering over the surface of this photograph, a reminder that art, even the most unassuming snapshot, is a portal.