World War Two was the war that spawned the Human Rights movement into what it is today. The gross violations of Human Rights committed by the Nazi’s before and during the war sparked the flame behind this movement. This movement also led to the influential Family of Man photo gallery which show cased human rights to every individual, defying social boundaries of the time.
The UN understood the atrocities that the Nazi’s committed during the war as a sign that the League of Nations had failed in its ability to create basic Human Rights. It gave the state the ultimate jurisdiction thus allowing the Nazi movement to do whatever it wanted to its people in its borders and to have the right to protect those outside of them (Mazower, 384). This is what the UN had to learn from but instead they chose to keep minorities down in the great power states following the war. This meant wording the document ambiguously so that the UN could intervene in states located in the Soviet Bloc but where there could be no interference in Western states (Mazower, 395). This is what Mark Mazower bring up in “The Strange Triumph of Human Right, 1933-1950.” This article really shows the racism that was still prevalent in these societies at the time the Article was written. The US didn’t want its segregation and racism to be brought to the fore front by this new law, and the British didn’t want to have violations from their empire being brought to the forefront.
This highlights the inconsistency of great power and Cold War politics of the time. The western powers were willing to have these Human Rights go through the UN as long as they could be used against the Soviet Union and not agains themselves. It is an unfortunate consequence of the time and caused many problems between the great powers. The West continually attempted to use this against the Eastern Bloc but kept their own social issues wrapped up in national government. Instead of progressing with this movement the West kept their minorities down and caused the issues to come to a boiling point later. This was a mistake on the West’s part and should have never happened after the actions taken out on minorities in World War Two. All States should have come together for the protection of minorities everywhere and not in select States that weren’t on their side.
Photos from Family of Man of different families
The Photogallery “Family of Man” attempted to tackle some of these issues by getting everyone to understand they are all effected the same and should be known as equals. Although it has come under backlash since the 1970’s about it being an “aesthetic of colonialism” and an attempt to cover the social and race problems in America at the time Fred Turner defends that it actually went against these beliefs (Turner, 56). Turner argues that it leaves everyone believing that they are an equal because in the end we all are subject to the same fate. He shows this through the photos that show how an H-bomb would affect everyone equally and this still has ramifications today. The photo gallery showed many different ways of life to the American people the first time it debuted and showed that this is an acceptable way of living for many people (Turner, 83). As the photo above shows, Family of Man was a way to show that these people aren’t much different from normal Americans, they all had families and a way of living that is their own. The gallery was meant to capture the hearts of the American people to unite them against the idea of war and towards unity with all people. It was the most progressive idea the time that went unrecognized due to the massive Civil Rights events that soon followed it.
I like your intro paragraph, you do a great job of presenting the idea you’re discussing throughout the post. It is unfortunate that even after the atrocities minorities had to endure throughout World War 2, the great powers could not come to an agreement that would provide universal rights for all people. I agree that Mazower does well explaining how the prejudice that was still present in the governments of some of the western powers was a key factor in the shaping of policies regarding human rights.
“The Photogallery “Family of Man” attempted to tackle some of these issues by getting everyone to understand they are all effected the same and should be known as equals”, I think this is very true. It sums up the fact that the exhibit sought to put everyone on the same level.