This is us with Hitler by the Eiffel Tower: Amazing time-travel pictures combine past and present as dictator is seen in Paris and D-Day landing soldiers on modern-day beach

  • Award-winning photographer Seth Taras made these images for a History Channel advertising campaign
  • He travelled the world to capture photos from the exact same perspective as their historical counterparts
  • For his efforts, Mr Taras was awarded the Cannes Lion for the campaign

By Damien Gayle

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A dog-walker strolls with his pet through a quiet field in New Jersey, lost in his own thoughts beneath an overcast sky. Behind him, the phantom of a vast airship, consumed by fire, plummets to Earth.

Briefcase in hand, a businessman talks down his mobile phone as he walks purposefully through Berlin - right through the ghost of the wall which split the city in two for nearly 30 years.

In Paris, a young couple lounge reading the papers on a wall before the majestic rise of the Eiffel Tower, the city's most well-known landmark.

Creepy: This combination of pictures makes viewers wonder how many people have stood before the Eiffel Tower unaware that Adolf Hitler once stood victorious in the same spot

Creepy: This combination of pictures makes viewers wonder how many people have stood before the Eiffel Tower unaware that Adolf Hitler once stood victorious in the same spot

Unbeknownst to them, an apparition of Adolf Hitler, Europe's most notorious modern-day dictator stands victoriously beside them after his Wehrmacht forces took the French capital by force.

And on the beaches of Normandy, the ghosts of the soldiers who brought freedom back to the continent re-enact their daring invasion, leaping from their landing craft as a mother and daughter look for crabs in the chilly waters.

 

These moving images match photographs of locations in the present day with the ghosts of the momentous historical events that happened there.

Created by photographer Seth Taras, they were the basis of a 2010 ad campaign for the History Channel - accompanied by the poignant message 'Know where you stand'.

Ghosts of the past: This image combines a view of a field in Lakehurst, New Jersey, where the Hindenburg airship came crashing catastrophically to the ground in 1937

Ghosts of the past: This image combines a view of a field in Lakehurst, New Jersey, where the Hindenburg airship came crashing catastrophically to the ground in 1937

Mr Taras travelled the world shooting his pictures from the exact spot that major historical events were captured, then used photo editing software to blend these with their older counterparts.

The striking airship image shows a field in Lakehurst, New Jersey, where the LZ 129 Hindenburg airship - the pride of German aviation - crashed on Thursday, May 6, 1937.

The Hindenburg burst into flames and plunged to the ground as it tried to dock, claiming the lives of 36 passengers and crew and effectively ending the era of travel by airship.

How the world has changed: This image marries views of Berlin from the present and from the time in 1989 that work began to take down the wall which once split the city

How the world has changed: This image marries views of Berlin from the present and from the time in 1989 that work began to take down the wall which once split the city

The Berlin photograph shows one of the final images of that city's infamous wall in 1989, just before it was torn down to reunite East and West Germany after decades of Communist dictatorship.

The eerie picture of Hitler standing before the Berlin wall was originally taken in 1940, as the Nazi leader toured Paris after his armies had rolled their way across Western Europe.

And the final poignant image of Allied soldiers rushing the beach at Normandy was taken on D-Day, June 6, 1944, as part of the massive invasion that finally rolled back the fascist tyranny that had gripped the continent.

Courage of those who came before us: The peaceful beaches of Normandy were once the location of the biggest amphibious invasion in the history of warfare, as this picture shows

Courage of those who came before us: The peaceful beaches of Normandy were once the location of the biggest amphibious invasion in the history of warfare, as this picture shows

Self-taught Mr Taras, from the U.S., is one of Luerzer's Archives 200 Best Photographers Worldwide and the winner of a string of international awards.

These images earned him a Cannes Lion, and the 'Know Where You Stand' campaign was translated into 30 languages and published in 130 countries.

More of his work can be seen on his blog.

 

The comments below have not been moderated.

Can we have some pictures of us attacking the american shore in order to steal the land from the native people?

Click to rate     Rating   (0)

More boring Photoshop work. Seems like everyone is getting on the bandwagon in one way or another. All this kind of stuff is being done by 10 year olds these days. Hardly worthy news.

Click to rate     Rating   27

Great concept - well done some one.

Click to rate     Rating   21

That last image brought a tear to my eye! Amazing

Click to rate     Rating   42

Interesting photos, but I wouldn't want to share photo-space (even though he has been added in), with one of the most evil men in history.

Click to rate     Rating   14

Look at that bottom picture of the Normandy landings... How disgusting of the Yanks to have a kid doing the mine clearance!

Click to rate     Rating   13

Not very original though. The same thing was done (and reported by this paper with the same hysteria) on the "Ghosts of History" website (google it or look on facebook)

Click to rate     Rating   11

It's a very good way to remember what has happened in history but also a way to see the end result, in the case of the Normandy beach picture, that peace and freedom have resulted from the actions of those who fought in WW2.

Click to rate     Rating   36

The one with the airship is really quite frightening.

Click to rate     Rating   15

I saw this done elsewhere in a slightly different way, might even have been in the Mail, with shoppers in today's streets walking through the sites of Euroepean wartime violence, death and destruction. Have to say those were more remarkable as they illustrated the dramatic change in the map of Europe in the last century and the liberty and freedom to walk around in each other's countries that were once enemies to the death.

Click to rate     Rating   8

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