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THE ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Robert W. Duffy's column appears on Sundays. You can reach him at 862-2188, by e-mail at rduffy@pd.stlnet.com, by fax at 721-1305 or by writing him at the Post-Dispatch, 200 South Bemiston Avenue, Clayton, Mo. 63105.
`The Illegal Camera'
Where: The Jewish Museum, 1109 Fifth Avenue at 92nd Street, New York City
When: Through Dec. 1.
More info: (212) 423-3230
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STANDING modestly apart from the embarrassment of artistic riches that characterizes New York City at this moment is an intense, dignified exhibition of photographs at the Jewish Museum on Fifth Avenue at 92nd Street that is as much about the good and the evil in human nature, and about cowardice and courage, as it is about art or about journalism.
To appreciate it, you have to take yourself to Europe and to go back a half a century in time when the world was marching into war.
By 1939, the Germans were on their muscle. September began with their offensive against the Poles.
Although they'd given Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands a guarantee of neutrality, in May 1940, the Nazis invaded her country from the east. The queen and her government fled to Britain. Holland was occupied. Wasting no time, the invaders began their ugly process of Gleichschaltung, which translates as "equalization" but in fact meant, in this situation, a process of bringing politics, art, journalism, labor unions and human beings into the lines drawn by National Socialism.
Arthur Seyss-Inquart, who had equalized Austria in 1938, was brought in as Reichscommissioner of the Netherlands....