Who wants to play gulag?

Stalin among children, in the same museum.

Hunger- we have the Fuehrer to thank

Graffiti in a phonebook, dating from wartime Germany, enshrined by the Soviets in Moscow.

a picture of helen dying

between daughter and great-grandson.

this is just paris

germinet salvatorem

Anselm Kiefer did a show at the Grand Palais. Pretty big, pretty astonishing. Everyone was taking pictures because they could. Kiefer does a lot of ruins, but once in a while, he lets the ruins settle and be soil.
The Latin written across the top (some is cut off) reads: [aperiatur terra], et germinet salvatorem rorate caeli desuper et pluant iustum [nubes]. Used in the Catholic liturgy. The Oxford Study Bible translates it thus: Rain righteousness, you heavens/let the skies pour it down/let the earth open for it/that salvation may flourish (Is. 45:8).

for when everyone has to go

On the way to school, there was a collection of toilets, and a repair van.

the old country

I used to go to school here. This is February. When I stepped out onto the playground to take more pictures, the schoolkids wouldn't come out. They were scared that I had been sent by an estranged parent to spirit them away, or maybe just gather evidence for a lawsuit. It was good to be home.