Auschwitz Album – Rare Shots of Concentration Camp Prisoners Made by SS Men
Various photographs taken in concentration camps are always quite rare. This is understandable, because the Nazis, no matter how self-confident they were, assumed any outcome of the war, so they tried not to record the traces of their crimes. And in the concentration camp, as you understand, there were traces of crimes all the time. These were far from rest homes, as German historians tell us today. If the Nazis filmed something in a concentration camp, 90 percent of the time it was themselves. As for the pictures that can be found in the public domain on the Internet, they were usually taken after the liberation of the concentration camp. All these emaciated prisoners and traces of the crimes of the Nazis. All this was already filmed after the release. And that is why the so-called “Auschwitz Album” is of particular value among historians and journalists. This is, perhaps, the only album of its kind, consisting of 193 photographs taken by the SS in May-June 1944, and reflecting all stages of the prisoner’s life, from arrival in the concentration camp to the gas chambers…
The photograph depicts the arrival of future prisoners, mostly Jews, in the Auschwitz concentration camp, which we are accustomed to call Auschwitz in common parlance. I left this picture on purpose. Pay attention to the age of the future prisoners. Did the fascists see them as an existential threat? A threat to the existence of the whole of Europe? In this little girl? Or the boy who stands next to her in a white cap?
After arriving at the concentration camp, everyone went through the so-called “selection” process. Two columns were lined up. On the left are women, on the right are men. And then everyone was inspected one by one by an SS officer. Those he liked were left in a concentration camp for forced labor. The elderly, children and those who simply did not like him were immediately sent to the gas chambers. By the way, in the top shot on the left you can see the arch of the main watchtower, which appears in almost all the pictures from Auschwitz.
And then in the “Auschwitz Album” there are the heaviest pictures. This series is called “The Last Moments in Front of the Gas Chambers.” There is no need to say anything here, just look at these faces and pay attention to the age of these people.
And the further you scroll through this section, the more children you meet.
Children, as well as the elderly, were not taken into work teams. Nor did they take the mothers of these very children there. These are very heavy shots…
