This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen

August Sander’s portrait of a young German soldier at the end of World War II (see also ‘Night Over Day Over Night’, by Paul Watkins) suggests a variety of metaphors, from a sheep in wolf’s clothing to Hannah Arendt’s observation about the banality of evil. In ‘This Way to the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen’, ‘Young Soldier 1945′ seems to be the source for Christopher Davis’ cover drawing. A hand and a rifle have been added, as a way of driving home the title’s point, and the young soldier’s original and paradoxically innocent face has aged and hardened.