REWORD:
Inside the dark and dingy bunker, Askat found harrowing reminders of the past. Though many of the floorboards had fallen away to reveal rusty pipes underneath, there were still old canisters and decaying debris strewn around some rooms—a reminder that this space was lived in.
Before underground bunkers, the legal and social rights of Jews were slowly but steadily being restricted in Germany. Throughout the 1930s, several anti-Semitic laws were passed. In 1933, Jews and other “non-Aryans” were barred from civil service. Jews were also barred from owning farms. Jewish lawyers were abruptly disbarred, and judges were dragged from their courtrooms and beaten.
REWORD:
Inside the bunker, Askat photographed the winding concrete corridors deep underground. These gloomy passageways were reinforced with thick cement walls and metal doors to protect the Nazis plotting underground from Allied forces. This bunker was one that you had to get used to or else you would probably get lost by the looks of this photo. To get to this point, the Nazis stripped Jews of more and more rights until they had few ways to resist.
In 1933, a major eugenics law was also passed, and 400,000 people were sterilized against their will. The Nuremberg Laws, passed in 1935 by Hitler, also prohibited “Aryan” Germans from having relationships with Jews and later other “non-Aryan” groups. Many persecuted artists and intellectuals fled Germany before World War II.
