While I agree with you, I wanted to provide a different perspective on how "remote" these images might seem. (I might be misunderstanding meaning you're putting behind that word. If so, please forgive me!)

I'm Russian, and I grew up in different parts of USSR and later ex-USSR. All of my older relatives were, in some sense, involved in WW2. A big part of my family died during that time - some killed in fighting, some from hunger, some from random bullets, some because of repressions of that time... That war greatly affected every family I know, usually in most tragic ways. So to many people over there, such photographs are not "remote" at all - they are an integral part of their own history.

At the same time, it is saddening to see a new generation grow up oblivious to what their grandparents went through... People forget so easily!