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"Nazi Youth"

Photos by Nicola Kast

By Nicola Kast

“I heard that a friend from school had joined a Nazi role-playing group, so I persuaded him to let me come photograph their yearly battle routine in Pennsylvania.

The event was large and well visited. It seemed like just another thing to do on a Sunday, like a street fair or the circus coming to town. Most of the uniforms and war tools were extremely well-made replicas. The guns were all real. Many of the kids who played Nazi soldiers in the camp were in their late teens.

As a German, it’s hard to describe how I felt while experiencing the war reenactment. Shame, disbelief, anger... I felt that it was something I had to see or make myself see. It was like another inevitable event that was brought on by the past and the only way to respond was to brace myself and take it.”