My war-torn childhood

Today we were given an interesting talk on the early life of one of our members: Dieter Shaw. 

Dieter was born in Hamburg and his first picture showed him as a boy with his parents. Dieter’s father was asked by the Nazi Party to sign documents showing his interest in joining the Party, but he categorically refused to sign and was eventually hauled off by the SS to a concentration Camp. 

His father was a Master Plumber and it was not long before he was released. His Mother was a hairdresser and the family survived on her meagre income. Although the war was never mentioned, survival was the name of the game. 

The family were housed in one of Hamburg’s flack towers which housed up to 2000 people, but they were soon moved to a Nissan hut without windows. Dieter’s parents worked for the British after the war helping to clear mines and rubble working up to 8 hours a day. 

The Red Cross were doing their best to reunite families, while the young children helped themselves to coal which tended to fall off the back of lorries.

Dieter started becoming interested in films and photography in his early teens and could sell up to 40 pictures per week. He also played in skiffle group and met Lonny Donegan. He attended a photography school in Kiel but had his ‘Call Up’ papers issued in the early nineteen sixties, although he thought he might be exempt due to his asthma. 

To avoid ‘Call Up’ he answered an advert for a job at a photographic shop in Oxford Street, London. After a long train trip via Hook of Holland and Harwich he arrived at Liverpool Street Station to start a career in photography in the UK - and the rest is history.

A very moving talk and an excellent vote of thanks given by Peter McLoughlin.

Report by Peter Oakden