WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.960 trouble podcast title, the deep dive, the lens 00:00:03.960 --> 00:00:08.560 of history, Jamie Lynn Heslop, WWII combat photography, 00:00:09.039 --> 00:00:11.740 and documenting truth. Apple podcast description, 00:00:12.279 --> 00:00:15.080 Apple podcast description. Join us for a profound 00:00:15.080 --> 00:00:17.539 deep dive into the life and lens of Jamie Lynn 00:00:17.539 --> 00:00:20.800 Heslop, a pioneering WWII combat photographer 00:00:20.800 --> 00:00:22.960 who captured some of the 20th century's most 00:00:22.960 --> 00:00:26.210 defining moments. From his early days as a Utah 00:00:26.210 --> 00:00:29.570 farm boy to his vital role in the 167th Signal 00:00:29.570 --> 00:00:32.549 Photographic Company, we explore how Heslop documented 00:00:32.549 --> 00:00:34.950 everything from the Battle of the Bulge to Churchill 00:00:34.950 --> 00:00:37.890 and de Gaulle in Paris. Most crucially, we unpack 00:00:37.890 --> 00:00:40.250 his harrowing work as one of the first American 00:00:40.250 --> 00:00:42.229 photographers to capture evidence of Nazi war 00:00:42.229 --> 00:00:44.729 crimes during the liberation of the Evancy concentration 00:00:44.729 --> 00:00:47.189 camp, discover how this Holocaust photography 00:00:47.189 --> 00:00:49.210 preserved the truth for the United States National 00:00:49.210 --> 00:00:51.990 Archives and the Holocaust Memorial Museum, and 00:00:51.990 --> 00:00:54.289 follow his post -war journey as a longtime for 00:00:54.289 --> 00:00:56.590 the Deseret News and prominent figure in LDS 00:00:56.590 --> 00:00:58.829 Church history. If you've ever wondered about 00:00:58.829 --> 00:01:00.770 the individuals behind the camera who shape our 00:01:00.770 --> 00:01:02.929 historical memory, this deep dive is for you. 00:01:03.119 --> 00:01:06.459 Imagine standing in the absolute freezing cold 00:01:06.459 --> 00:01:09.299 of Europe in the winter of 1944. That's brutal 00:01:09.299 --> 00:01:12.359 conditions. Right, totally brutal. You are thousands 00:01:12.359 --> 00:01:14.920 of miles away from home. Your breath is pluming 00:01:14.920 --> 00:01:19.239 in the icy air and the deafening earth -shaking 00:01:19.239 --> 00:01:22.019 sound of artillery fires going off all around 00:01:22.019 --> 00:01:24.780 you. Your fingers are completely numb. Your heart 00:01:24.780 --> 00:01:28.069 is pounding in your chest. But your primary job, 00:01:28.290 --> 00:01:31.129 your singular duty in this unimaginable chaos 00:01:31.129 --> 00:01:34.189 isn't to hold a rifle or command a squad. It 00:01:34.189 --> 00:01:37.769 is to hold a small metal camera. Which is just 00:01:37.769 --> 00:01:39.670 wild to think about. It really is. You have to 00:01:39.670 --> 00:01:42.290 keep your hands steady, you know, manually adjust 00:01:42.290 --> 00:01:45.349 your aperture, look through a tiny glass viewfinder 00:01:45.349 --> 00:01:48.549 and document history as it quite literally explodes 00:01:48.549 --> 00:01:51.719 around you. Yeah, that level of focus is. It's 00:01:51.719 --> 00:01:53.840 hard to even comprehend. Exactly. I mean, have 00:01:53.840 --> 00:01:56.280 you ever looked at a famous historical photograph, 00:01:56.400 --> 00:01:59.019 one of those gritty black and white images that 00:01:59.019 --> 00:02:01.500 completely defines an era and considered the 00:02:01.500 --> 00:02:03.239 physical reality of the person who had to be 00:02:03.239 --> 00:02:04.680 standing there? Right. Someone actually had to 00:02:04.680 --> 00:02:07.340 take the picture. Yes. The person who had to 00:02:07.340 --> 00:02:10.199 conquer every human instinct to flee just to 00:02:10.199 --> 00:02:12.020 freeze that moment in time for the rest of us. 00:02:12.439 --> 00:02:14.379 It really changes your relationship with history 00:02:14.379 --> 00:02:16.219 when you start looking at the photographer rather 00:02:16.219 --> 00:02:18.240 than just the photograph. Absolutely. Because, 00:02:18.340 --> 00:02:21.479 um... We consume so many images today, thousands 00:02:21.479 --> 00:02:23.580 of them, effortlessly scrolling past our eyes, 00:02:24.159 --> 00:02:26.780 but we rarely stop to think about the human being 00:02:26.780 --> 00:02:28.919 on the other side of the lens, especially in 00:02:28.919 --> 00:02:31.780 a combat zone. The act of taking a picture in 00:02:31.780 --> 00:02:34.280 that environment is, well, it's an act of profound 00:02:34.280 --> 00:02:36.699 physical courage. And that tension is really 00:02:36.699 --> 00:02:39.199 the heartbeat of our deep dive today. We are 00:02:39.199 --> 00:02:42.539 exploring the life of J. Malin Heslop. We're 00:02:42.539 --> 00:02:45.000 charting the phenomenal trajectory of a man who 00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:47.199 served as a critical eye for the world during 00:02:47.199 --> 00:02:50.020 the Second World War. A really unique perspective. 00:02:50.120 --> 00:02:53.180 We are going to explore how his life's work bridged 00:02:53.180 --> 00:02:56.719 the unimaginable global trauma of the 1940s and 00:02:56.719 --> 00:03:00.419 then transitioned into a life of deep localized 00:03:00.419 --> 00:03:03.259 community faith and leadership. Yeah, it's quite 00:03:03.259 --> 00:03:05.340 the shift. It's a narrative. that moves from 00:03:05.340 --> 00:03:08.219 the absolute darkest shadows of the 20th century 00:03:08.219 --> 00:03:11.080 back into the light of a very quiet, purposeful 00:03:11.080 --> 00:03:14.060 civilian life. The geography of his life alone 00:03:14.060 --> 00:03:17.060 is staggering. I mean, we are tracing a journey 00:03:17.060 --> 00:03:21.139 that begins on a very humble Weber County, Utah 00:03:21.139 --> 00:03:24.120 farm, moves through the glamour of Hollywood 00:03:24.120 --> 00:03:27.979 training backlots, plunges into the grim historical 00:03:27.979 --> 00:03:30.979 liberation of the Ebb and Zee concentration camp 00:03:30.979 --> 00:03:33.840 in Austria. and eventually settles into a decades 00:03:33.840 --> 00:03:36.620 -long career as an influential newspaper editor 00:03:36.620 --> 00:03:39.180 and a significant leader within the LDS church. 00:03:39.400 --> 00:03:41.599 It's a massive scope. The scope is massive, yeah, 00:03:41.719 --> 00:03:43.699 both geographically and emotionally. And the 00:03:43.699 --> 00:03:45.900 reason this individual story carries so much 00:03:45.900 --> 00:03:49.219 weight for you, for us today, is rooted in our 00:03:49.219 --> 00:03:51.620 modern relationship with images. We live in an 00:03:51.620 --> 00:03:54.400 era where we all have incredibly powerful cameras 00:03:54.400 --> 00:03:56.400 right in our pocket. Taking hundreds of photos 00:03:56.400 --> 00:03:58.560 a day. Without a second thought. We filter them, 00:03:58.659 --> 00:04:00.979 we manipulate them, we delete them. But Heslop's 00:04:00.979 --> 00:04:03.819 story strips all of that away. It is a master 00:04:03.819 --> 00:04:07.400 class in the absolute weight, the profound responsibility, 00:04:07.699 --> 00:04:10.580 and the vital historical necessity of the photographic 00:04:10.580 --> 00:04:13.419 image. It really is. His life demonstrates what 00:04:13.419 --> 00:04:15.699 it means when taking a photograph isn't just 00:04:15.699 --> 00:04:18.259 about capturing a personal memory, but about 00:04:18.259 --> 00:04:21.279 securing irrefutable historical evidence for 00:04:21.279 --> 00:04:23.639 the world. You're talking about the camera as 00:04:23.639 --> 00:04:26.220 an instrument of truth, and in some cases an 00:04:26.220 --> 00:04:28.740 instrument of justice. Exactly. So let's look 00:04:28.740 --> 00:04:30.899 at where that foundational understanding of the 00:04:30.899 --> 00:04:34.240 world begins. J. Malan Heslop was born on June 00:04:34.240 --> 00:04:39.220 18, 1923 in a place called Taylor, Utah. He was 00:04:39.220 --> 00:04:41.819 the oldest of three children born to Jesse and 00:04:41.819 --> 00:04:44.360 Zella Malan Heslop. And when he was three years 00:04:44.360 --> 00:04:47.259 old, his family relocated to a farm in West Weber, 00:04:47.259 --> 00:04:50.019 Utah. Now, growing up on a farm in rural Utah 00:04:50.019 --> 00:04:53.819 during the 1920s and the 1930s is a highly specific 00:04:53.819 --> 00:04:56.040 cultural and environmental crucible. Oh, for 00:04:56.040 --> 00:04:57.920 sure. It's an environment that fundamentally 00:04:57.920 --> 00:04:59.959 shapes how a person interacts with the physical 00:04:59.959 --> 00:05:02.319 world. Think about what a farm upbringing actually 00:05:02.319 --> 00:05:04.459 demands of a young person. A lot of hard work. 00:05:04.839 --> 00:05:06.759 Right. It's not just doing chores, though. It 00:05:06.759 --> 00:05:09.680 is an education in immense patience. You learn 00:05:09.680 --> 00:05:11.720 that things take time to grow, that seasons have 00:05:11.720 --> 00:05:14.100 to change, and that you cannot rush the natural 00:05:14.100 --> 00:05:16.699 order of things. You are totally at the mercy 00:05:16.699 --> 00:05:19.899 of elements much larger than yourself. Constantly. 00:05:20.779 --> 00:05:23.779 It also instills a hypervigilant sense of observation. 00:05:23.920 --> 00:05:25.939 You have to watch the weather patterns. You have 00:05:25.939 --> 00:05:28.100 to observe the moisture in the soil. You have 00:05:28.100 --> 00:05:30.000 to pay attention to the health of the livestock. 00:05:30.240 --> 00:05:32.819 It's all connected. You're intimately connected 00:05:32.819 --> 00:05:35.480 to the physical world around you in a very grounded, 00:05:35.480 --> 00:05:38.000 practical way. Yeah. When you look at the traits 00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:41.579 required to be a masterful documentary photographer. 00:05:41.600 --> 00:05:44.279 Oh, that's a great connection. Patience, hyper 00:05:44.279 --> 00:05:47.600 observation, spatial awareness, and an understanding 00:05:47.600 --> 00:05:51.500 of light and time. You realize that a 1930s farm 00:05:51.500 --> 00:05:54.399 is actually a brilliant training ground. And 00:05:54.399 --> 00:05:56.639 the specific spark for photography didn't come 00:05:56.639 --> 00:05:58.860 from a school program initially. It came directly 00:05:58.860 --> 00:06:02.199 from his family. His father, Jesse, actively 00:06:02.199 --> 00:06:04.879 encouraged and inspired J. Mellon's interest 00:06:04.879 --> 00:06:06.720 in the camera. That's pretty rare for the time. 00:06:06.899 --> 00:06:09.720 Right. Jesse let young Mellon use his own camera 00:06:09.720 --> 00:06:12.000 and allowed him to practice not just taking photos 00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:14.620 but developing the prints. We really need to 00:06:14.620 --> 00:06:16.959 pause and appreciate the reality of that in the 00:06:16.959 --> 00:06:20.470 1930s. taking and developing prints back then 00:06:20.470 --> 00:06:24.810 was a deeply manual, highly scientific, and expensive 00:06:24.810 --> 00:06:27.569 process. Not like today. Not at all instantaneous. 00:06:27.689 --> 00:06:29.589 Yeah. You had to understand the physics of light, 00:06:30.129 --> 00:06:31.610 and you had to understand the chemistry of the 00:06:31.610 --> 00:06:34.589 dark ring, the developer, the stop bath, the 00:06:34.589 --> 00:06:37.629 fixer. Messy stuff. Very. You had to work blindly 00:06:37.629 --> 00:06:40.389 in the dark, relying on touch and timing. It 00:06:40.389 --> 00:06:44.000 required meticulous dedication. So, for a father 00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:46.600 during the Great Depression era to trust his 00:06:46.600 --> 00:06:49.519 son with fragile equipment and expensive chemical 00:06:49.519 --> 00:06:51.980 supplies. Yeah, that shows a massive investment 00:06:51.980 --> 00:06:54.519 in his child's curiosity. Exactly. It's hands 00:06:54.519 --> 00:06:57.000 -on learning, quite literally in the dark. And 00:06:57.000 --> 00:07:00.279 that curiosity clearly blossomed. By the time 00:07:00.279 --> 00:07:02.699 Heslop reaches Weber High School, he is highly 00:07:02.699 --> 00:07:04.860 engaged across the board. Doing a bit of everything. 00:07:05.019 --> 00:07:06.980 He really is. He's participating in track and 00:07:06.980 --> 00:07:08.800 fields. He's playing the trombone in the school 00:07:08.800 --> 00:07:11.139 band. He's a member of the photography club, 00:07:11.199 --> 00:07:13.279 and he serves as the yearbook photographer. It 00:07:13.279 --> 00:07:15.500 paints a picture of a young man learning how 00:07:15.500 --> 00:07:17.600 to observe people in different settings. He's 00:07:17.600 --> 00:07:20.060 athletic. He's musical. He's artistic. Very well 00:07:20.060 --> 00:07:22.180 -rounded. He is learning how to exist within 00:07:22.180 --> 00:07:25.579 and document different micro communities, which 00:07:25.579 --> 00:07:28.379 is an essential soft skill for a photojournalist. 00:07:28.899 --> 00:07:31.160 You have to know how to read a room or a track 00:07:31.160 --> 00:07:33.879 meet or a band practice to anticipate where the 00:07:33.879 --> 00:07:35.579 action is going to be. And then we get to the 00:07:35.579 --> 00:07:37.300 specific hardware he was using, which is such 00:07:37.300 --> 00:07:40.480 a telling detail. His very first camera was a 00:07:40.480 --> 00:07:44.060 35 millimeter Argus C3. It was equipped with 00:07:44.060 --> 00:07:48.720 an f3 .5 lens and a flash. The Argus C3 is a 00:07:48.720 --> 00:07:50.660 legendary piece of equipment in the history of 00:07:50.660 --> 00:07:53.269 photography. His famous nickname was The Brick. 00:07:53.589 --> 00:07:55.350 And if you've ever held one, you know exactly 00:07:55.350 --> 00:07:57.870 why. I can imagine. It was heavy. It was completely 00:07:57.870 --> 00:08:01.730 boxy. It was incredibly durable. And it was unapologetically 00:08:01.730 --> 00:08:03.949 manual. It essentially looks like a small cinder 00:08:03.949 --> 00:08:05.990 block with a lens attached to it. It really does. 00:08:06.279 --> 00:08:08.439 To take a picture with the brick, you couldn't 00:08:08.439 --> 00:08:11.000 rely on automation. You had to mentally calculate 00:08:11.000 --> 00:08:14.100 the exposure. You had to adjust that f3 .5 lens. 00:08:14.279 --> 00:08:16.519 Which was decent for the time, right? It was 00:08:16.519 --> 00:08:18.639 reasonably fast for the time and allowed decent 00:08:18.639 --> 00:08:21.660 light gathering, but it required precise focusing. 00:08:22.040 --> 00:08:24.329 You had to manually set the shutter speed. and 00:08:24.329 --> 00:08:26.649 the focusing mechanism itself was a rangefinder. 00:08:26.810 --> 00:08:29.009 How did that work? You look through a tiny window, 00:08:29.509 --> 00:08:33.009 saw two overlapping ghost -like images of your 00:08:33.009 --> 00:08:35.750 subject, and you had to turn a stiff dial until 00:08:35.750 --> 00:08:39.090 those two images merged into one perfectly sharp 00:08:39.090 --> 00:08:41.289 image. Only then could you fire the shutter. 00:08:41.649 --> 00:08:44.750 Wow. It forces a massive amount of intentionality. 00:08:45.110 --> 00:08:48.519 It forces deliberate sequential thought. using 00:08:48.519 --> 00:08:52.240 a heavy, complex, fully manual camera, like the 00:08:52.240 --> 00:08:55.019 trained Heslop's eye and his muscle memory, long 00:08:55.019 --> 00:08:57.340 before he ever saw a battlefield. He had to learn 00:08:57.340 --> 00:08:59.899 to operate those dials instinctively. And that 00:08:59.899 --> 00:09:02.100 instinct is put to the ultimate test remarkably 00:09:02.100 --> 00:09:04.340 early in his life. His first photography job 00:09:04.340 --> 00:09:06.840 was with the Ogden Standard Examiner. While he's 00:09:06.840 --> 00:09:09.490 working there, an airport fire breaks out. Heslop 00:09:09.490 --> 00:09:11.590 rushes to the scene, captures photos of this 00:09:11.590 --> 00:09:13.649 massive fire, and his images make the front page 00:09:13.649 --> 00:09:15.769 of the examiner. Think about the psychological 00:09:15.769 --> 00:09:18.470 barrier he had to cross in that moment. That 00:09:18.470 --> 00:09:21.110 local airport fire was essentially his crucible. 00:09:21.309 --> 00:09:23.850 It was his introductory course in disaster photography. 00:09:24.029 --> 00:09:26.490 Definitely. An event like that requires you to 00:09:26.490 --> 00:09:29.649 conquer human instinct. When there is a massive 00:09:29.649 --> 00:09:32.809 fire, every biological imperative screams at 00:09:32.809 --> 00:09:35.789 you to run away. Photojournalism demands that 00:09:35.789 --> 00:09:37.830 you run toward the danger to get the shot. Which 00:09:37.830 --> 00:09:40.669 is terrifying. He had to reign perfectly calm, 00:09:41.389 --> 00:09:43.990 calculate his manual exposure on the brick, merge 00:09:43.990 --> 00:09:46.570 those two little rangefinder images, and hold 00:09:46.570 --> 00:09:49.570 the camera completely steady while chaos, heat, 00:09:49.730 --> 00:09:51.529 and destruction are unfolding right in front 00:09:51.529 --> 00:09:53.549 of him. He proved he could keep his cool while 00:09:53.549 --> 00:09:56.600 the world was literally burning. And that ability 00:09:56.600 --> 00:09:59.080 becomes critical because his timeline accelerates 00:09:59.080 --> 00:10:01.559 incredibly fast right after high school. It really 00:10:01.559 --> 00:10:03.799 does. He graduates from Weber High School on 00:10:03.799 --> 00:10:07.200 May 17th, 1941. He starts at Weber College in 00:10:07.200 --> 00:10:10.500 the fall of 1941. He then goes on to study photography 00:10:10.500 --> 00:10:14.100 at Los Angeles City College. And by October 1942, 00:10:14.720 --> 00:10:17.159 he enlists in the United States Army Reserve. 00:10:17.600 --> 00:10:19.879 The historical context surrounding those dates 00:10:19.879 --> 00:10:22.360 is everything. He starts college in the fall 00:10:22.360 --> 00:10:26.960 of 1941. On December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor is 00:10:26.960 --> 00:10:29.580 attacked. Right. Everything changes. The United 00:10:29.580 --> 00:10:31.679 States officially enters the Second World War. 00:10:31.840 --> 00:10:35.139 The entire environment he is studying in shifts 00:10:35.139 --> 00:10:37.919 dramatically overnight. He transitions from a 00:10:37.919 --> 00:10:40.879 young man honing his craft as a local news photographer 00:10:40.879 --> 00:10:43.940 to living in a nation fully mobilized for total 00:10:43.940 --> 00:10:47.100 global war. Answering the call. Exactly. Answering 00:10:47.100 --> 00:10:50.139 the military call in October 1942 was a shared 00:10:50.139 --> 00:10:53.200 reality for his generation. But his specific 00:10:53.200 --> 00:10:55.679 skill set, his ability to remain calm behind 00:10:55.679 --> 00:10:58.620 a lens was about to be utilized in a highly specialized 00:10:58.620 --> 00:11:01.389 way. Which brings us to a wildly fascinating 00:11:01.389 --> 00:11:05.129 pivot. In November 1942, shortly after enlisting, 00:11:05.389 --> 00:11:07.570 Heslop is sent to study at Paramount Studios 00:11:07.570 --> 00:11:10.090 in Hollywood. Yes. With the Signal Corps Photographer 00:11:10.090 --> 00:11:12.950 School, Hollywood Studios training combat photographers. 00:11:13.090 --> 00:11:15.009 It sounds like a bizarre contradiction. You have 00:11:15.009 --> 00:11:17.029 Hollywood glamour on one side and the brutal 00:11:17.029 --> 00:11:19.389 grit of a global war on the other. But from a 00:11:19.389 --> 00:11:22.110 strategic standpoint, it was brilliant. The military 00:11:22.110 --> 00:11:24.950 looked at Hollywood Studios and saw the undisputed 00:11:24.950 --> 00:11:28.059 masters of visual storytelling. Paramount Pictures 00:11:28.059 --> 00:11:30.419 knew everything there was to know about lighting, 00:11:30.919 --> 00:11:32.940 about framing, about the technical mechanics 00:11:32.940 --> 00:11:35.659 of cameras, and about how different film stocks 00:11:35.659 --> 00:11:38.159 reacted to different environments. They were 00:11:38.159 --> 00:11:40.740 the premier image makers of the world. And the 00:11:40.740 --> 00:11:43.539 United States military recognized that they desperately 00:11:43.539 --> 00:11:46.600 needed those exact skills to document the war 00:11:46.600 --> 00:11:49.259 effort. For propaganda? Well, the military needed 00:11:49.259 --> 00:11:52.220 visual documentation for three distinct critical 00:11:52.220 --> 00:11:55.940 reasons. First. Tactical intelligence. They needed 00:11:55.940 --> 00:11:58.299 to see troop movements, enemy fortifications, 00:11:58.700 --> 00:12:01.200 and terrain. Makes sense. Second, public morale. 00:12:01.500 --> 00:12:03.659 They needed to show the American public what 00:12:03.659 --> 00:12:06.000 the soldiers were facing to maintain support 00:12:06.000 --> 00:12:08.799 for the war and drive war bond sales. And third, 00:12:09.100 --> 00:12:10.940 they needed it for the historical record. So 00:12:10.940 --> 00:12:12.879 Paramount was the best place to learn that. The 00:12:12.879 --> 00:12:15.059 Signal Corps realized that a farm boy from Utah 00:12:15.059 --> 00:12:18.179 who cut his teeth on an Argus C3 had the raw 00:12:18.179 --> 00:12:20.220 talent. But if they sent him to the Paramount 00:12:20.220 --> 00:12:22.360 lots, he could learn how to frame a shot from 00:12:22.360 --> 00:12:25.120 the greatest visual technicians alive. He is 00:12:25.120 --> 00:12:27.419 learning the language of cinema to document the 00:12:27.419 --> 00:12:30.399 reality of war. Exactly. After this highly specialized 00:12:30.399 --> 00:12:34.659 training, he is assigned to the 167th Signal 00:12:34.659 --> 00:12:37.679 Photographic Company. He receives the rank of 00:12:37.679 --> 00:12:40.500 technician fifth grade, or T5, which is the equivalent 00:12:40.500 --> 00:12:42.600 of a corporal. Right. He completes his basic 00:12:42.600 --> 00:12:44.860 training in Lebanon, Tennessee, which is where 00:12:44.860 --> 00:12:47.220 he takes his first official army photographs. 00:12:47.620 --> 00:12:52.259 And then his deployment is set. On July 23, 1944, 00:12:52.879 --> 00:12:55.320 he ships out on a vessel called the Mauritania, 00:12:55.899 --> 00:12:58.879 heading straight into the European theater. Before 00:12:58.879 --> 00:13:01.100 we follow him across the Atlantic, we have to 00:13:01.100 --> 00:13:03.480 look at a deeply personal milestone that happens 00:13:03.480 --> 00:13:06.759 right before he leaves. J. Mullen Heslop married 00:13:06.759 --> 00:13:10.379 Faye Stokes on May 1, 1944. In the Salt Lake 00:13:10.379 --> 00:13:13.000 Temple. The timing of that is so incredibly tight. 00:13:13.120 --> 00:13:15.519 He gets married on May 1, and he boards a troop 00:13:15.519 --> 00:13:18.970 ship for a war zone on July 23. That is a span 00:13:18.970 --> 00:13:21.090 of less than three months. Oh, wow. Consider 00:13:21.090 --> 00:13:24.029 the psychological reality of the WWII as newlywed. 00:13:24.509 --> 00:13:26.730 He is barking on a marriage, experiencing this 00:13:26.730 --> 00:13:29.110 profound personal joy and commitment, only to 00:13:29.110 --> 00:13:30.909 immediately have to pack his gear and sail toward 00:13:30.909 --> 00:13:33.230 the unknown. It's heartbreaking. The emotional 00:13:33.230 --> 00:13:36.190 whiplash of holding your new wife and then holding 00:13:36.190 --> 00:13:38.870 your combat camera on a ship crossing the Atlantic, 00:13:39.190 --> 00:13:42.490 it adds such a deeply human layer to him. He 00:13:42.490 --> 00:13:45.070 isn't just a soldier fulfilling a duty. He is 00:13:45.070 --> 00:13:47.490 a newlywed husband who has everything to lose. 00:13:47.600 --> 00:13:51.059 And the environment he sails into is vast, chaotic, 00:13:51.259 --> 00:13:54.720 and perilous. His deployment spans nine intensely 00:13:54.720 --> 00:13:58.220 compressed months, from September 1944 to May 00:13:58.220 --> 00:14:01.639 1945. The geographic footprint of his service 00:14:01.639 --> 00:14:04.659 covers a massive swath of a war -torn continent, 00:14:05.120 --> 00:14:08.980 Austria, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, and Germany. 00:14:09.259 --> 00:14:11.279 Nine months might not sound like a long time 00:14:11.279 --> 00:14:13.860 in the context of an 88 -year life, but in a 00:14:13.860 --> 00:14:16.419 combat zone during the final desperate, incredibly 00:14:16.419 --> 00:14:18.759 violent of the Second World War, nine months 00:14:18.759 --> 00:14:20.779 is a lifetime. Oh, absolutely. Every single day 00:14:20.779 --> 00:14:22.860 is saturated with life or death stakes. You're 00:14:22.860 --> 00:14:24.980 constantly moving, constantly exposed, and constantly 00:14:24.980 --> 00:14:27.360 hyper aware. He is operating as part of Arnold 00:14:27.360 --> 00:14:29.700 E. Samuelson's Combat Assignment Unit, hashtag 00:14:29.700 --> 00:14:32.419 123. And the sheer variety of what he was ordered 00:14:32.419 --> 00:14:34.679 to photograph during those nine months is staggering. 00:14:34.740 --> 00:14:37.200 Very diverse assignment. He is documenting the 00:14:37.200 --> 00:14:39.799 Counterintelligence Corps. He is photographing 00:14:39.799 --> 00:14:42.120 titans of history like Charles de Gaulle and 00:14:42.120 --> 00:14:44.960 Winston Churchill in a liberated Paris. And then 00:14:44.960 --> 00:14:48.190 he is documenting the primal freezing brutality 00:14:48.190 --> 00:14:51.110 of the Battle of the Bulge. The contrast between 00:14:51.110 --> 00:14:54.529 those assignments requires an incredible mental 00:14:54.529 --> 00:14:57.950 and technical flexibility. As a combat photographer, 00:14:58.570 --> 00:15:00.230 you have to be a chameleon. Because the settings 00:15:00.230 --> 00:15:02.509 are so different. Think about the Paris assignment. 00:15:03.110 --> 00:15:05.500 The city has been liberated. You are capturing 00:15:05.500 --> 00:15:08.580 Churchill and de Gaulle. These are polished historic 00:15:08.580 --> 00:15:12.220 figures. You are framing a shot of statesmanship, 00:15:12.580 --> 00:15:14.740 of triumph, of formal gravity. You're trying 00:15:14.740 --> 00:15:16.879 to project strength. You are looking for the 00:15:16.879 --> 00:15:19.759 iconic image that will run in papers across the 00:15:19.759 --> 00:15:22.500 free world to project strength and victory. You 00:15:22.500 --> 00:15:24.639 have time to consider the framing, to wait for 00:15:24.639 --> 00:15:27.059 the right expression. Exactly. That is exactly 00:15:27.059 --> 00:15:29.039 the luxury you have in that specific scenario. 00:15:29.440 --> 00:15:31.639 But then, the environment shifts completely. 00:15:31.799 --> 00:15:33.879 you are thrust into the Battle of the Bulge. 00:15:34.220 --> 00:15:37.120 A total nightmare. You are no longer in a liberated 00:15:37.120 --> 00:15:39.860 city. You are in the densely wooded Ardennes 00:15:39.860 --> 00:15:42.759 forest in the dead of winter. It is one of the 00:15:42.759 --> 00:15:45.559 coldest, most miserable, and bloodiest battles 00:15:45.559 --> 00:15:48.100 the American forces fought in Europe. Yeah. You 00:15:48.100 --> 00:15:50.779 are freezing in the snow, surrounded by artillery 00:15:50.779 --> 00:15:53.980 fire, sheer desperation, and mass casualties. 00:15:54.379 --> 00:15:56.879 The technical challenges of operating a camera 00:15:56.879 --> 00:15:58.980 in that specific environment must have been a 00:15:58.980 --> 00:16:01.379 nightmare. It borders on the impossible. Yeah. 00:16:01.529 --> 00:16:03.710 How do you keep a mechanical camera functioning 00:16:03.710 --> 00:16:06.830 in sub -zero temperatures? The lubricants inside 00:16:06.830 --> 00:16:09.330 the lens and shutter mechanisms can literally 00:16:09.330 --> 00:16:11.809 freeze solid. I hadn't even thought of that. 00:16:12.110 --> 00:16:14.210 The film itself becomes brittle in the extreme 00:16:14.210 --> 00:16:17.149 cold and can snap inside the camera if you wind 00:16:17.149 --> 00:16:20.289 it too quickly. Your fingers lose all dexterity, 00:16:20.730 --> 00:16:23.669 but you still have to manually adjust tiny aperture 00:16:23.669 --> 00:16:26.409 rings and shutter speed dials. With frozen hands. 00:16:26.549 --> 00:16:28.570 You still have to manually meter the light, reflecting 00:16:28.570 --> 00:16:31.149 off the blinding white snow. which can easily 00:16:31.149 --> 00:16:33.389 trick your exposure calculations. It's so technical. 00:16:33.769 --> 00:16:36.350 He had to rely on every ounce of that foundational 00:16:36.350 --> 00:16:38.509 training from the Utah winters, from the airport 00:16:38.509 --> 00:16:41.110 fire, and from Hollywood to compartmentalize 00:16:41.110 --> 00:16:43.830 the terror and execute the mechanics of photography 00:16:43.830 --> 00:16:46.409 while people are dying around him. He had to 00:16:46.409 --> 00:16:48.809 remain a technician in the middle of absolute 00:16:48.809 --> 00:16:51.950 chaos. And that profound ability to bear witness, 00:16:52.070 --> 00:16:54.730 to keep his eyes open, and his lens focused brings 00:16:54.730 --> 00:16:57.509 us to the most harrowing and historically vital 00:16:57.509 --> 00:17:02.070 chapter of his service. Yes. In May 1945, Heslop's 00:17:02.070 --> 00:17:05.109 unit moves into Austria. It is there that he 00:17:05.109 --> 00:17:07.809 photographs the liberation of the Ebensee concentration 00:17:07.809 --> 00:17:11.059 camp. Ebbensie was a sub camp of the notorious 00:17:11.059 --> 00:17:13.500 Mauthausen -Gusen concentration camp system, 00:17:13.960 --> 00:17:16.240 used primarily for slave labor in underground 00:17:16.240 --> 00:17:18.380 tunnel construction. This is a moment where the 00:17:18.380 --> 00:17:20.299 history of the world pivots. Yeah. And he is 00:17:20.299 --> 00:17:22.039 standing right there at the focal point tasked 00:17:22.039 --> 00:17:24.299 with documenting it. J. Milan Heslop was one 00:17:24.299 --> 00:17:26.619 of the first American photographers to document 00:17:26.619 --> 00:17:28.799 evidence of Nazi crimes and the prisoners at 00:17:28.799 --> 00:17:31.119 Ebbensie. He was among the very first to point 00:17:31.119 --> 00:17:33.339 a lens at the reality of the Holocaust as it 00:17:33.339 --> 00:17:36.259 was being uncovered by allied forces. We really 00:17:36.259 --> 00:17:38.440 need to dwell on the emotional and psychological 00:17:38.440 --> 00:17:41.039 toll of that reality. Put yourself in the boots 00:17:41.039 --> 00:17:43.559 of a 21 year old from a rural farming community 00:17:43.559 --> 00:17:46.420 in Utah. Just a kid, really? He is suddenly peering 00:17:46.420 --> 00:17:49.960 through a small glass lens at the absolute worst 00:17:49.960 --> 00:17:52.559 horrors that humanity is capable of inflicting 00:17:52.559 --> 00:17:55.759 upon itself. He is seeing things that the human 00:17:55.759 --> 00:17:58.339 mind is fundamentally not built to comprehend. 00:17:58.880 --> 00:18:02.119 The starving prisoners, the unburied dead. The 00:18:02.119 --> 00:18:05.279 mechanized, bureaucratic infrastructure of genocide. 00:18:06.019 --> 00:18:08.660 And he is seeing it through a viewfinder, which 00:18:08.660 --> 00:18:10.880 creates a strange psychological dynamic. What 00:18:10.880 --> 00:18:13.140 do you mean? It simultaneously distances you 00:18:13.140 --> 00:18:15.799 from the scene, but also forces you to focus 00:18:15.799 --> 00:18:18.420 intensely on the gruesome details. His job wasn't 00:18:18.420 --> 00:18:20.319 just to be horrified. He couldn't turn away. 00:18:20.579 --> 00:18:23.460 He had a highly specific, mandated purpose. We 00:18:23.460 --> 00:18:25.259 have to understand the strategic purpose of this 00:18:25.259 --> 00:18:28.079 photography. When Heslop was standing in Evancy, 00:18:28.500 --> 00:18:31.150 he wasn't capturing newsreels for morale. he 00:18:31.150 --> 00:18:33.849 was capturing evidence. The combat photographers 00:18:33.849 --> 00:18:36.150 assigned to these liberated camps were given 00:18:36.150 --> 00:18:38.970 the agonizing task of securing the visual proof 00:18:38.970 --> 00:18:43.170 of Nazi war crimes. Military commanders, specifically 00:18:43.170 --> 00:18:45.589 leaders like General Eisenhower, knew immediately 00:18:45.589 --> 00:18:47.849 that if these atrocities weren't meticulously 00:18:47.849 --> 00:18:50.890 documented on film by official sources, future 00:18:50.890 --> 00:18:53.529 generations might simply refuse to believe they 00:18:53.529 --> 00:18:55.890 happened. Who saw that coming? The sheer scale 00:18:55.890 --> 00:18:59.420 of the evil defied logic. They anticipated Holocaust 00:18:59.420 --> 00:19:01.799 denialism before the war was even officially 00:19:01.799 --> 00:19:05.720 over. They needed undeniable, irrefutable proof. 00:19:06.099 --> 00:19:08.559 So Heslop's camera ceases to be just a recording 00:19:08.559 --> 00:19:10.579 device. It becomes an instrument of justice. 00:19:11.220 --> 00:19:13.759 But think about the devastating duality of that 00:19:13.759 --> 00:19:16.559 role for the photographer. Yeah. To do his job, 00:19:16.700 --> 00:19:19.079 to secure that essential evidence, he had to 00:19:19.079 --> 00:19:21.160 forcefully detach himself emotionally in the 00:19:21.160 --> 00:19:23.559 moment. He had to look at a scene of unimaginable 00:19:23.559 --> 00:19:26.059 human suffering and his brain had to process 00:19:26.059 --> 00:19:28.740 it. technically. Back to the mechanics. He had 00:19:28.740 --> 00:19:31.240 to think, the light in this barracks is low. 00:19:31.519 --> 00:19:33.900 I need to open the aperture. I need to hold the 00:19:33.900 --> 00:19:36.140 camera perfectly steady for a slow shutter speed. 00:19:36.359 --> 00:19:39.880 I need to frame this specific scene so the sheer 00:19:39.880 --> 00:19:42.460 scale of the atrocity is visible. He's chilly. 00:19:43.019 --> 00:19:45.480 He had to force himself to be a cold calculating 00:19:45.480 --> 00:19:48.099 technician while standing in the epicenter of 00:19:48.099 --> 00:19:51.640 human trauma. The strength required to not drop 00:19:51.640 --> 00:19:53.960 the camera, to not just collapse under the weight 00:19:53.960 --> 00:19:55.980 of it, but to keep shooting so the world would 00:19:55.980 --> 00:19:59.200 know the truth. It is a monumental burden for 00:19:59.200 --> 00:20:01.779 anyone, let alone someone barely out of his peens. 00:20:02.299 --> 00:20:04.599 He had to be the eyes of the world when the world 00:20:04.599 --> 00:20:06.519 would have rather looked away. He carried that 00:20:06.519 --> 00:20:09.480 visual evidence back with him. After witnessing 00:20:09.480 --> 00:20:12.079 the depths of human depravity, after surviving 00:20:12.079 --> 00:20:14.140 the Battle of the Bulge and the liberation of 00:20:14.140 --> 00:20:17.259 Ebb and Sea, the war ends. Finally. Hezlop returns 00:20:17.259 --> 00:20:20.180 home to Utah. And his next move is a pivot that 00:20:20.180 --> 00:20:22.339 I found incredibly revealing about how human 00:20:22.339 --> 00:20:25.460 beings process trauma after returning from European 00:20:25.460 --> 00:20:28.339 roles at Utah State Agricultural College. Which 00:20:28.339 --> 00:20:30.400 we now know as Utah State University up in Logan. 00:20:30.819 --> 00:20:33.980 Right. He graduates in June of 1948. And his 00:20:33.980 --> 00:20:36.420 degree isn't in photojournalism. It's not in 00:20:36.420 --> 00:20:39.019 history or political science. He gets a degree 00:20:39.019 --> 00:20:41.769 in agriculture. It seems like a left turn. But 00:20:41.769 --> 00:20:43.769 when you consider the psychological aftermath 00:20:43.769 --> 00:20:46.289 of what he had just survived, it makes a profound 00:20:46.289 --> 00:20:48.890 amount of sense. Why agriculture after being 00:20:48.890 --> 00:20:51.529 at the center of global news? Consider where 00:20:51.529 --> 00:20:54.190 he had just been and the nature of what he had 00:20:54.190 --> 00:20:57.069 witnessed. He had spent nine months documenting 00:20:57.069 --> 00:20:59.269 the literal destruction of the physical world 00:20:59.269 --> 00:21:02.130 and the human body. The ultimate destruction. 00:21:02.349 --> 00:21:04.920 You photographed bombed out cities. cratered 00:21:04.920 --> 00:21:07.579 landscapes, frozen forests filled with casualties, 00:21:08.099 --> 00:21:10.299 and the systematic mechanized destruction of 00:21:10.299 --> 00:21:12.980 human life in the concentration camps. He witnessed 00:21:12.980 --> 00:21:15.720 the world being torn apart. Yeah. Coming back 00:21:15.720 --> 00:21:17.799 home to his roots. Remember, he grew up on a 00:21:17.799 --> 00:21:20.839 farm in West Weber, and choosing to study agriculture 00:21:20.839 --> 00:21:24.140 is a massive psychological reset. It's a return 00:21:24.140 --> 00:21:27.259 to the soil. Exactly. What is the fundamental 00:21:27.259 --> 00:21:29.700 nature of agriculture? It is the study of how 00:21:29.700 --> 00:21:32.299 to grow things. It is about nurturing life from 00:21:32.299 --> 00:21:35.079 the earth. It is about cultivation, sustainability, 00:21:35.680 --> 00:21:38.660 and the quiet, predictable turning of the seasons. 00:21:39.380 --> 00:21:42.480 After being surrounded by death, chaos, and the 00:21:42.480 --> 00:21:45.400 darkest capabilities of mankind, putting his 00:21:45.400 --> 00:21:47.299 hands in the dirt and focusing on the cycles 00:21:47.299 --> 00:21:50.039 of life and growth must have been a deeply necessary 00:21:50.039 --> 00:21:52.200 healing mechanism. That makes perfect sense. 00:21:52.410 --> 00:21:54.910 It was a return to the foundational life -affirming 00:21:54.910 --> 00:21:57.569 principles of his childhood before the war shattered 00:21:57.569 --> 00:22:00.130 everything. But he doesn't abandon his calling. 00:22:00.430 --> 00:22:02.470 After earning that degree in agriculture and 00:22:02.470 --> 00:22:04.410 grounding himself, he returns to the camera. 00:22:04.869 --> 00:22:07.589 He joins the Deseret News newspaper in Salt Lake 00:22:07.589 --> 00:22:10.170 City, Utah. Right. His talent and experience 00:22:10.170 --> 00:22:12.710 were obviously undeniable because shortly after 00:22:12.710 --> 00:22:15.190 joining the staff, he is promoted to chief photographer 00:22:15.190 --> 00:22:18.690 and he holds that position for 20 years. This 00:22:18.690 --> 00:22:20.950 introduces another fascinating contrast in his 00:22:20.950 --> 00:22:23.430 life's work. For two decades, he serves as the 00:22:23.430 --> 00:22:25.589 chief photographer for a major daily newspaper 00:22:25.589 --> 00:22:28.950 in Utah. He is capturing civilian life. A huge 00:22:28.950 --> 00:22:31.349 shift from combat. He's photographing religious 00:22:31.349 --> 00:22:34.029 gatherings, community events, local politics, 00:22:34.230 --> 00:22:37.210 high school sports, state fairs. He is applying 00:22:37.210 --> 00:22:40.609 the exact same high stakes, technical skills, 00:22:40.970 --> 00:22:43.789 the situational awareness, the framing, the ability 00:22:43.789 --> 00:22:46.069 to read lighting that he honed at Paramount Studios 00:22:46.069 --> 00:22:48.450 and in the Ardennes forest. But he is applying 00:22:48.450 --> 00:22:52.319 them to everyday peaceful. Community journalism 00:22:52.319 --> 00:22:54.819 the camera that documented the Holocaust is now 00:22:54.819 --> 00:22:56.839 documenting a ribbon -cutting ceremony. It is 00:22:56.839 --> 00:22:59.299 a beautiful full circle moment He is using his 00:22:59.299 --> 00:23:01.420 talents to reflect the daily rhythms of a peaceful 00:23:01.420 --> 00:23:04.200 society back to itself And his career trajectory 00:23:04.200 --> 00:23:06.779 didn't stop behind the lens. He eventually moves 00:23:06.779 --> 00:23:11.180 to the editor's desk. From 1968 to 1976, he serves 00:23:11.180 --> 00:23:13.720 as the editor of the Church News, a publication 00:23:13.720 --> 00:23:15.779 distributed both as an insert in the Deseret 00:23:15.779 --> 00:23:18.819 News and via mail to a broader global readership. 00:23:19.000 --> 00:23:21.920 A very influential role. Following that, in 1976, 00:23:22.259 --> 00:23:24.319 Heslup becomes the managing editor of the Deseret 00:23:24.319 --> 00:23:26.700 News itself. He holds that critical managing 00:23:26.700 --> 00:23:30.119 editor position from 1976 to 1981 and then serves 00:23:30.119 --> 00:23:33.640 another stint from 1983 until 1980. This transition 00:23:33.640 --> 00:23:36.460 from the darkroom to editorial leadership represents 00:23:36.460 --> 00:23:38.819 a major evolution in how he interacts with the 00:23:38.819 --> 00:23:42.039 public. For decades, he communicated almost exclusively 00:23:42.039 --> 00:23:44.700 through images. He let the photographs convey 00:23:44.700 --> 00:23:47.779 the narrative. But as a managing editor, he is 00:23:47.779 --> 00:23:50.400 now guiding the written word. He is directing 00:23:50.400 --> 00:23:53.339 the editorial vision of a major institution. 00:23:53.400 --> 00:23:55.559 He's setting the agenda. He is deciding which 00:23:55.559 --> 00:23:57.849 stories matter. how they should be covered, and 00:23:57.849 --> 00:24:00.049 what the ultimate narrative is for a massive 00:24:00.049 --> 00:24:03.549 readership base. It shows a man who has grown 00:24:03.549 --> 00:24:07.130 from a front -line silent observer into a seasoned, 00:24:07.589 --> 00:24:10.589 trusted community voice who actively shapes public 00:24:10.589 --> 00:24:13.049 discourse. That concept of being a trusted voice 00:24:13.049 --> 00:24:15.210 in the community extends far beyond the newsroom. 00:24:15.609 --> 00:24:17.829 J. Milan Heslop had incredibly deep roots and 00:24:17.829 --> 00:24:20.109 held extensive leadership roles within the LDS 00:24:20.109 --> 00:24:21.809 Church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter 00:24:21.809 --> 00:24:23.809 -day Saints. Very extensive. For listeners who 00:24:23.809 --> 00:24:25.829 might not be familiar with the structure of the 00:24:25.829 --> 00:24:28.769 LDS Church, the sheer volume of his service is 00:24:28.769 --> 00:24:31.609 remarkable. He served as a bishop of the Salt 00:24:31.609 --> 00:24:35.900 Lake 26th Ward. A bishop is essentially the unpaid 00:24:35.900 --> 00:24:39.339 pastoral leader of a local congregation, requiring 00:24:39.339 --> 00:24:41.880 massive amounts of time counseling members and 00:24:41.880 --> 00:24:44.859 organizing local efforts. It is a heavy, emotionally 00:24:44.859 --> 00:24:47.500 demanding role. He was also a counselor in the 00:24:47.500 --> 00:24:50.079 stake presidency of the Salt Lake Pioneer Stake 00:24:50.079 --> 00:24:52.460 and later the president of the Salt Lake Stake. 00:24:52.819 --> 00:24:55.420 A stake oversees multiple local congregations, 00:24:55.720 --> 00:24:58.859 so as stake president, he was managing the spiritual 00:24:58.859 --> 00:25:01.160 and administrative affairs for thousands of people. 00:25:01.319 --> 00:25:03.519 That's a lot of responsibility. He was a member 00:25:03.519 --> 00:25:06.200 of the YMIA general board, which directed the 00:25:06.200 --> 00:25:08.039 youth programs for the young men of the church 00:25:08.039 --> 00:25:10.900 globally. He served as a regional representative, 00:25:11.140 --> 00:25:13.680 advising local leaders across broader geographic 00:25:13.680 --> 00:25:15.900 areas. It just kept going. He was the president 00:25:15.900 --> 00:25:18.200 of the Chicago North Mission, relocating his 00:25:18.200 --> 00:25:20.579 family to oversee hundreds of young missionaries. 00:25:20.680 --> 00:25:23.240 And he served as a stake patriarch, a role given 00:25:23.240 --> 00:25:26.299 to spiritually mature men to provide individualized, 00:25:26.500 --> 00:25:28.359 deeply personal blessings to church members. 00:25:28.720 --> 00:25:30.539 When you look at that list of callings, it paints 00:25:30.539 --> 00:25:33.420 a portrait of a man entirely devoted to the service 00:25:33.420 --> 00:25:36.559 of others. Think about how his worldview must 00:25:36.559 --> 00:25:38.940 have been shaped by his twenties. Seriously. 00:25:39.240 --> 00:25:41.559 A man who looked through a lens at the absolute 00:25:41.559 --> 00:25:44.539 darkest shadows humanity can produce in 1945 00:25:44.539 --> 00:25:48.680 Europe, returns home and dedicates the vast majority 00:25:48.680 --> 00:25:51.700 of his adult life to spiritual leadership. He 00:25:51.700 --> 00:25:54.380 spent his time counseling, guiding, and providing 00:25:54.380 --> 00:25:57.109 moral framework to his community. It's an amazing 00:25:57.109 --> 00:25:59.990 response to trauma. He witnessed the abyss. And 00:25:59.990 --> 00:26:02.450 his response wasn't nihilism or despair. His 00:26:02.450 --> 00:26:04.910 response was to spend the rest of his life tirelessly 00:26:04.910 --> 00:26:07.349 building up his community, nurturing faith, and 00:26:07.349 --> 00:26:09.950 serving his fellow man. It is a powerful testament 00:26:09.950 --> 00:26:12.410 to his resilience. And at the absolute center 00:26:12.410 --> 00:26:15.369 of all of that service was his family. He and 00:26:15.369 --> 00:26:17.390 Faye Stokes, the woman he married just weeks 00:26:17.390 --> 00:26:19.930 before shipping off to war, went on to have five 00:26:19.930 --> 00:26:23.839 children together, Paul, Lynn, Scott. Anne and 00:26:23.839 --> 00:26:26.980 Don. Big family. They even co -authored an autobiography 00:26:26.980 --> 00:26:29.599 together, wonderfully titled Double Tree Adventure. 00:26:30.099 --> 00:26:32.359 Which is a beautiful detail because it ensures 00:26:32.359 --> 00:26:34.579 that his personal history, his family's intimate 00:26:34.579 --> 00:26:38.480 story, is documented and preserved just as meticulously 00:26:38.480 --> 00:26:41.359 as the grand sweeping world history he captured 00:26:41.359 --> 00:26:44.680 with his Argus C3. That passion for documentation 00:26:44.680 --> 00:26:46.920 clearly never left him because he also had a 00:26:46.920 --> 00:26:49.640 prolific career as an author and historian. He 00:26:49.640 --> 00:26:51.579 authored or co -authored several publications, 00:26:51.759 --> 00:26:55.079 often collaborating with Del Van Orden. In 1973, 00:26:55.099 --> 00:26:57.279 he published a book called From the Shadow of 00:26:57.279 --> 00:27:01.460 Death, Stories of POWs. In 1971, he wrote Joseph 00:27:01.460 --> 00:27:04.759 Fielding Smith, a prophet among the people documenting 00:27:04.759 --> 00:27:07.359 the life of a prominent church leader. And in 00:27:07.359 --> 00:27:10.220 1978, he published a highly practical book titled 00:27:10.220 --> 00:27:13.220 How to Compile Your Family History. If you look 00:27:13.220 --> 00:27:15.680 closely at those titles, there is a very clear 00:27:15.680 --> 00:27:18.319 thematic throughline from The Shadow of Death. 00:27:18.859 --> 00:27:21.180 Stories of POWs directly connects back to his 00:27:21.180 --> 00:27:23.839 war experience. He saw the camps. He saw the 00:27:23.839 --> 00:27:26.240 prisoners. He understood the trauma of captivity. 00:27:26.319 --> 00:27:28.779 He carried that with him. This book demonstrates 00:27:28.779 --> 00:27:31.460 a lingering empathy and a deep desire to give 00:27:31.460 --> 00:27:33.599 voice to those who suffered in the shadows. He 00:27:33.599 --> 00:27:35.200 didn't want their experiences to be forgotten. 00:27:35.579 --> 00:27:38.170 Not at all. And then you look at how to compile 00:27:38.170 --> 00:27:40.630 your family history. This connects directly to 00:27:40.630 --> 00:27:43.309 his absolute obsession with preservation. Because 00:27:43.309 --> 00:27:45.789 he knew the value of records. Whether he is preserving 00:27:45.789 --> 00:27:47.849 the macro history of the world through a combat 00:27:47.849 --> 00:27:50.569 camera or preserving the micro history of a single 00:27:50.569 --> 00:27:53.490 family through genealogy and records, his driving 00:27:53.490 --> 00:27:57.289 impulse is identical. Do not let the past disappear. 00:27:57.559 --> 00:28:00.559 Document it. Keep the evidence. Understand where 00:28:00.559 --> 00:28:02.980 you came from. He was also heavily involved in 00:28:02.980 --> 00:28:04.839 the formation of the group that eventually became 00:28:04.839 --> 00:28:07.700 the Mormon Historic Sites Foundation, dedicating 00:28:07.700 --> 00:28:10.519 time to physically preserving locations of historical 00:28:10.519 --> 00:28:13.440 significance to his faith. It all ties back to 00:28:13.440 --> 00:28:16.299 keeping memory alive. Which brings us to the 00:28:16.299 --> 00:28:18.660 legacy of his own memories, the archives of his 00:28:18.660 --> 00:28:22.640 work. The photos he took in 1944 and 1945 aren't 00:28:22.640 --> 00:28:24.579 just sitting in a box somewhere gathering dust. 00:28:24.900 --> 00:28:27.299 They are actively preserving history today. The 00:28:27.299 --> 00:28:29.859 institutional preservation of his work is monumental. 00:28:30.220 --> 00:28:32.359 Brigham Young University, through its Saints 00:28:32.359 --> 00:28:34.579 at War project, headed by Robert C. Freeman, 00:28:35.299 --> 00:28:37.740 recognized the immense historical value of his 00:28:37.740 --> 00:28:40.259 collection. They have digitized and made available 00:28:40.259 --> 00:28:43.319 online more than 1 ,000 of Heslop's war photos 00:28:43.319 --> 00:28:45.799 from World War II. Over a thousand images. Over 00:28:45.799 --> 00:28:48.839 a thousand images, completely accessible to the 00:28:48.839 --> 00:28:51.440 public, preserving exactly what he saw through 00:28:51.440 --> 00:28:54.039 that viewfinder. And the institutional weight 00:28:54.039 --> 00:28:56.059 of where his primary collections are held is 00:28:56.059 --> 00:28:59.460 the ultimate validation of his life's work. His 00:28:59.460 --> 00:29:02.339 World War II era photos are held in the permanent 00:29:02.339 --> 00:29:04.640 collections of the United States National Archives 00:29:04.640 --> 00:29:07.220 and the National Holocaust Museum. These are 00:29:07.220 --> 00:29:09.799 the highest, most rigorous repositories of historical 00:29:09.799 --> 00:29:12.059 truth in the nation. They are. When the National 00:29:12.059 --> 00:29:14.400 Holocaust Museum needs to show the world the 00:29:14.400 --> 00:29:16.740 undeniable reality of what happened at Evency, 00:29:17.180 --> 00:29:20.119 when they need to counter modern denialism with 00:29:20.119 --> 00:29:23.680 hard, visual, irrefutable proof, they rely on 00:29:23.680 --> 00:29:25.759 the light that passed through J. Milan Heslop's 00:29:25.759 --> 00:29:28.460 lens. His photographs are the foundational evidence 00:29:28.460 --> 00:29:30.880 of our shared human history. J. Milan Heslop 00:29:30.880 --> 00:29:34.079 passed away on July 29, 2011, in Salt Lake City, 00:29:34.079 --> 00:29:38.700 Utah, at the age of 88. 88 years, a long, incredibly 00:29:38.700 --> 00:29:41.319 full life. And if there's one thing his life 00:29:41.319 --> 00:29:44.240 demonstrates, it is the profound power of evidence. 00:29:44.960 --> 00:29:47.039 Absolutely. Heslop's journey shows us that the 00:29:47.039 --> 00:29:49.819 act of looking, the physical act of refusing 00:29:49.819 --> 00:29:52.700 to turn your eyes away from horror, of documenting 00:29:52.700 --> 00:29:55.539 and archiving the truth, is an act of profound 00:29:55.539 --> 00:29:58.680 courage. It is the civic duty of the highest 00:29:58.680 --> 00:30:01.160 order. It really is. His legacy isn't just a 00:30:01.160 --> 00:30:02.980 collection of old black and white photographs. 00:30:03.500 --> 00:30:05.960 His legacy is permanently woven into how the 00:30:05.960 --> 00:30:09.019 entire world remembers World War II and the Holocaust. 00:30:10.220 --> 00:30:12.059 He made sure we could never say we didn't know. 00:30:12.240 --> 00:30:14.680 It is an absolutely incredible scope for one 00:30:14.680 --> 00:30:16.950 human life. From learning the messy chemistry 00:30:16.950 --> 00:30:19.230 of developing prints with his dad on a Wes Webber 00:30:19.230 --> 00:30:21.809 farm, to conquering his fear at an Ogden airport 00:30:21.809 --> 00:30:24.430 fire, to training on Hollywood backlots with 00:30:24.430 --> 00:30:27.309 cinematic masters. Quite the journey. From standing 00:30:27.309 --> 00:30:29.569 in the freezing bloody snow of the Battle of 00:30:29.569 --> 00:30:32.049 the Bulge, to looking through a viewfinder at 00:30:32.049 --> 00:30:34.990 the unimaginable horrors of an Austrian concentration 00:30:34.990 --> 00:30:38.740 camp. And then, taking all of that immense psychological 00:30:38.740 --> 00:30:41.519 weight back home to Utah, choosing to build a 00:30:41.519 --> 00:30:44.259 life as an agriculturalist, a community journalist, 00:30:44.680 --> 00:30:48.119 an editor, a father, and a deeply committed spiritual 00:30:48.119 --> 00:30:50.799 leader. He saw the very worst of the world and 00:30:50.799 --> 00:30:52.859 spent the rest of his life contributing to the 00:30:52.859 --> 00:30:55.440 very best of it. As we wrap up this deep dive, 00:30:55.519 --> 00:30:57.519 I want to leave you with a final lingering thought 00:30:57.519 --> 00:31:00.359 to mull over as you go about your day. Jamalyn 00:31:00.359 --> 00:31:02.480 Heslop spent his youth looking through a small 00:31:02.480 --> 00:31:04.680 piece of glass to capture the absolute darkest 00:31:04.680 --> 00:31:07.500 shadows of the 20th century. But he spent the 00:31:07.500 --> 00:31:09.720 rest of his life developing the light through 00:31:09.720 --> 00:31:12.799 his family, his faith, and his community. So 00:31:12.799 --> 00:31:14.140 the next time you pull out your phone to take 00:31:14.140 --> 00:31:16.980 a quick photo to remember a moment, ask yourself, 00:31:17.599 --> 00:31:19.700 what are you actively choosing to preserve for 00:31:19.700 --> 00:31:22.259 the future? And what will that evidence say about 00:31:22.259 --> 00:31:24.140 the world you lived in? That is certainly something 00:31:24.140 --> 00:31:25.960 to think about the next time you tap that shutter 00:31:25.960 --> 00:31:28.059 button. Thank you so much for joining us for 00:31:28.059 --> 00:31:30.759 this deep dive into the extraordinary life of 00:31:30.759 --> 00:31:34.240 J. Milan Hislop. It's a powerful reminder that 00:31:34.240 --> 00:31:36.180 history isn't just a collection of dates and 00:31:36.180 --> 00:31:38.680 facts. It is the view through the lens of individuals 00:31:38.680 --> 00:31:40.480 who were brave enough to keep their eyes open. 00:31:40.920 --> 00:31:43.660 Keep exploring, keep questioning, and we'll see 00:31:43.660 --> 00:31:44.319 you next time.