Henry Ries

Henry Ries (September 22, 1917 - May 24, 2004) was a photographer who worked for the "New York Times". His most famous photo was of "The Berlin Air Lift" which was later made into a U.S. Postage Stamp commemorative.

Ries was born in Berlin and grew up in Germany, but sensed the impending doom of Hitler's political style and, as a Jew, emigrated to the United States in 1937. Immigration officials in New York sent him back to Nazi Germany because of technical problems with his papers. Fortunately, Ries was permitted to enter America in January 1938, having crossed the Atlantic twice to do so.

When America entered World War II, Ries joined the army and fought in the Asian Theater, humorously pointing out that he served in Asia due to his "good German" skills. After the war, he served as a European photographer for the "New York Times", photographing many of the scenes of post-war Germany etched into our minds.

When he returned to Berlin in 1945, he pronounced the city forever changed. In his book, "Abschied meiner Generation", he said, "Seeing all this devastation and desperation, confronted with hunger and fear, cripples and black-marketers -- and with no Nazi in sight anywhere -- I realized how fundamentally the seven years between emigration and occupation had changed Germany's exterior and my own interior."

During his time with the "Times", he met and photographed the famous and the infamous, such as artists Pablo Picasso and Pablo Casals, as well as Spanish dictator Generalissimo Francisco Franco.

In 2003 he was awarded Germany's Officer Cross of the Order of Merit, the highest award for citizens of other countries.