The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas is hosting an exhibition of rare photos called The Battle for the Eastern Front: Photographs from the William Broyles, Jr. Collection.
The exhibit coincides with the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe.
Broyes, a Vietnam veteran, is the founding editor of Texas Monthly, a former editor-in-chief at Newsweek and a co-creator of the television series China Beach.
The exhibition continues through July 17. The photographs can be seen Tuesdays through Fridays from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., with extended Thursday hours until 7 p.m. Hours are noon to 5 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.
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Russian photo exhibit
William Broyles, Jr. discusses the photos in the collection.
 
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News 8 Austin’s Paul Brown spoke with Broyles about the exhibit’s significance.
Q: This photo exhibit is from the Soviet side of the war. What’s the significance?
A: I think the significance is that I grew up on the stories of D-Day and Battle of the Bulge and my father was in World War II, but it wasn’t until I went to Russia myself in the late 90s that I realized there was a whole other war on the other side of the curtain that was hidden from us during the Cold War. The people had been closed off and when I started seeing them, the size and scope of this war blew me away. I mean, we lost 400,000 Americans in World War II, but 25 to 28 million people were killed.
One of the things that was different for the Russians was that they fought on their soil, where we fought overseas. It was a battle for their survival. So when a mother says goodbye to her son, not only does she not know if she will see him again, but he doesn’t know if he’ll see her again because their very villages were the battlefield.
