recently unearthed photos of the Nazi SS at play at Auschwitz

From the NYThttp://tinyurl.com/2hfvm7

Interesting, I was just reading <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/09/18/dachau.drawings.ap/index.html">this article</a>, about an album of art from Dachau. Apparently it also has a bunch of photos portraying a summer camp atmosphere at the camp.

The Auschwitz photos evidently were in a personal photo album liberated by an an anonymous American GI at the end of the war. The Holocasut Memeorial Museum, has no plans to exhibit the photos right now but will have them on line later this week. <P>From the New York Times article:<P>

 

<I>...The album also contains eight photos of Josef Mengele, the camp doctor notorious for participating in the selections of arriving prisoners and bizarre and cruel medical experiments. These are the first authenticated pictures of Mengele at Auschwitz, officials at the Holocaust museum said.The photos provide a stunning counterpoint to what up until now has been the only major source of preliberation Auschwitz photos, the so-called Auschwitz Album, a compilation of pictures taken by SS photographers in the spring of 1944 and discovered by a survivor in another camp. Those photos depict the arrival at the camp of a transport of Hungarian Jews, who at the time made up the last remaining sizable Jewish community in Europe. The Auschwitz Album, owned by Yad Vashem, the Israeli Holocaust museum, depicts the railside selection process at Birkenau, the area where trains arrived at the camp, as SS men herded new prisoners into lines.<P>

 

The comparisons between the albums are both poignant and obvious, as they juxtapose the comfortable daily lives of the guards with the horrific reality within the camp, where thousands were starving and 1.1 million died. </I>

<P>

I posted here in the Philosophy of photography forum for a couple of intertwined reasons: photographs as a sociological record of how people lived and acted like normal people even while daily engaged in hideous acts of violence and inhumane conduct, photographs as historical records, and the randomness of the preservation and later discovery of that historical record.

and yet there are a few who deny that this ever happened.

my mother's cousin was there.

sadly he worked for animal control at newark nj. he was assigned to

help at the camps while in the us army because he had

" similar experience" this is terrible that innocent people were treatred so badly that " animal control people"

were best qualified to deal with sick and infested prisioners.

 

The concentracion camps experimented dunking prisioners in cold water to determine how Lufaffa fliers would survive in the sea if shot down.

this was so cruel that although the us air force had the results of this experimentastion documented, they did not use it because of the way it was obtained. there was no limit to this cruelty.

besides jewish people many thousands others were "exterminated" for the convenience of the " third reich"

 

and yet stalin killed even more people than hitler, so that say.

 

I mention thjis here because unless you are older, this could be a terrible and soon forgotten chapter of history.

something like this should never happen again.

The audio slide show linked to the article Ellis pointed to is excellent, and there isn't much to ad to what the commentator said. She talks about the 'banality of evil' and emphasizes that human beings did all that was done at Auschwitz. The photos show better than words ever could that the perpetrators of Auschwitz were not beasts but men and women with children and pets who celebrated holidays and took vacations. They were like us in so many ways - some even shared our passion for photography. Yet they succumbed to anti-Semitism, racism and hatred. We have to be careful never to do that!

"We have to be careful never to do that!"

 

It's happening this very moment, openly, today, in front of the world's eyes as most are blinded by their bias' and few have what it takes to do what needs to be done; the taking of the bull by the horns. So blatantly, out in the open it continues, the UN refusing to do what's needed to intervene; (Darfur, blood diamonds, child warriors, North Korea and the Middle East), never to be stopped cause the power brokers around the world are too into themselves making money off the dead. And then, like now, the people are without either the will or the means for hate is being taught to the children, encouraged, from the womb of innocents.

 

Go figure.

http://www.srpska-mreza.com/handzar/handzar.htm

Thomas Gardner hit the nail on the head.

 

I wonder about the possible use of these photos as propaganda to allay rumors of the camps' true nature. If that is the case, it would be like photos of Jane Fonda sitting with Vietnam POWs while they were served the only fruit and nutritious food they had received in years. Those photos are how the Hua Lo prison came to be known as the Hanoi Hilton. It wasn't an ironic name at the time because many hapless people believed what they saw in the photos.

 

My grandfather was in Europe for the duration of the war and at the end was present when they discovered these camps while pushing the Germans out of Poland and Czechoslovakia. He says that they knew the Germans had lots of POW camps, but nobody believed the rumors about what went on in them. At the time the Nazis were considered a political party. The truth had not yet been revealed by history to much of the world.

 

He had a pocket camera and took pictures. As a child I was digging in his attic and found an album with those pictures. I don't remember much because I didn't know what I was looking at. I remember bodies stacked like cord wood. They didn't look like real people to me. He came looking for me and when he discovered what I was looking at he immediately took it away and made me get out of there. Nobody ever saw the photo album again, even after the death of my grandparents.

 

He never talked about the war until I got older, just before his death, and even then it came in tiny bits and pieces. He never mentioned the album. If I had it today I would just give it to a museum.

Thomas, the UN does what the United States funds it to do, which has not been seriously military since the Korean Conflict, and it refrains from doing what we won't subsidize. Today's horrors might be laid at more appropriate doorsteps. To the UN's credit, it has refrained from destroying major cities. And happily for the United States, Russia, and perhaps Syria, it has been financially unable to attack countries that do destroy major cities.

<p>@Robert: your link is propaganda. I bet you can't tell a real $20 bill from a fake one as

well.</p>

<p>@John: do we really need to stick out our geopolitics in the open when the original post

calls to something entirely different?</p>

<p>Thomas' post is right on the ball though.</p>

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30286-2005Mar12.html

"Robert: your link is propaganda."

 

Then I guess that the History Channel is in the business of propaganda, that is where I first heard about "other" members of the SS.

Robert, I'm sure there's an entry for what bugs you in the DSM IV.

<p><i>Then I guess that the History Channel is in the business of propaganda, that is where

I first heard about "other" members of the SS.</i></p>

 

<p>Okay. Go to the first page of the srpska-mreza site, and first thing you see is Serbian

flag waving. Very strange, no? Then scroll down to the bottom, and you see Nato symbol

alternating with a Swastika. That should tell you something about the reliability of your

source, shouldn't it? I'm not saying that an SS division was never formed from Bosnian

Muslims -- no I'm not saying that -- I'm just saying that your source is not reliable, and that

the fact that you cannot tell whether it's reliable or not is somewhat troubling to me.</p>

Eugene, I can't say anything about that link I gave you, I should have found another example!

<p>Another thing to note is: During 1940s, SS divisions were formed all over Eastern

Europe. They were formed from perfectly normal people, some moral, some less moral.

The majority of SS were formed on the basis of an inherent ethnic dislike of some other

nations. People were not told "you're going to participate in a genocide." People were told:

"you can fight with us and we will pay you or (as a bonus you get to fight those guys from

across the river you really hate) or you can fight against us and you'll lose."</p>

 

<p>The majority of those SS divisions did not participate in genocide. I'm not saying they

were nice and all, but for the most part they were just normal soldiers. Just because a

division was formed from an ethnic group does not imply that that ethnic group is

inherently evil or warlike or that they are nazi sympathizers, much less today.</p>

"Another thing to note is: During 1940s, SS divisions were formed all over Eastern Europe. They were formed from perfectly normal people, some moral, some less moral. The majority of SS were formed on the basis of an inherent >ethnic dislike< of some other nations."

 

Eugene, that sanitizes it all a bit much for me...

"'m not saying they were nice and all, but for the most part they were just normal soldiers"

 

You totally lost me on this statement! Who is sprouting propaganda?

It's indeed true that the Waffen-SS were not all bad people, many fought because they believed that Hitler could give them the promises he made to them. A lot of baltic people fought togheter with the SS because they didn't want to be overtaken by the communists of Stalin so they had to choose between 2 evils. Here in Belgium we had a fair share of volunteers but many were actually talked into it by priests who were affraid of the bolsjeviks (because the bolsjeviks didn't like religion). Claiming that all SS were just evil men is wrong and it shows a lack of knowledge about the subject if you claim this.

Robert, I knew a man who served in SS Galicia. According to his

words, all they did in the division was fighting Soviets, like

regular, trained soldiers. He did not get enlisted by Germans

because he hated Jews or anything like that -- he got enlisted

because he wanted to fight Soviets. In that place during that time

Soviets were not popular and were considered an occupying army. The

family he came from actually helped

save several Jewish people during WWI pogroms. During fighting he

never came in contact with anyone being deported to a death camp.

The fighting was brutal -- I don't think they took POWs. The

opposite side did the same. He could have heard about Auschwitz or

he could have not. Eventually the division lost a decisive battle

because of American bombing. He kept the fact he was an SS soldier

secret for 45 years under USSR.

http://www.deathcamps.info/Nazis/Default.htm

 

"The SS Men wore black uniforms with a skeleton's head on their hats, the motto Unsere Ehre heisst Treue on their belts and their symbol was the double S-rune. They had sworn eternal faith to Adolf Hitler and they were his most ruthless henchmen, men often seen as the very personifications of evil. A violent group who rose to power in a democracy and established institutions of legitimized terror.

 

These masterminds of death were found to be quite psychologically normal. They were men of fine standing, husbands who morning and night kissed their wives, fathers who tucked their children into bed.

 

But murders, brutalities, cruelties, tortures, atrocities, and other inhuman acts were an everyday occurrence.

 

In 1933 approximately nine million Jews lived in the countries of Europe that would be occupied by Germany during the war. By 1945 two out of every three European Jews had been killed by the SS Men. The Holocaust was the systematic annihilation of six million Jews"

 

 

Some acts are undefendable, being a member of the SS for ANY REASON is one of them!

FWIW, my Father and Uncles killed Nazis and SS in WW2. That was honorable.

Robert, I think you generalize too much, the SS was a very large organisation and the "Totenkopf" division was just a small part of this. There was even a big difference between SS and Waffen-SS (being the fact that you had to have German blood to enter the SS). We today can hardly imagine what it must have felt to see 2 very large armies storming towards you to take over the country, which side would you have chosen, knowing that both were equally bad?? Telling that all SS and Waffen-SS were bad people is just not right, even if a part of it was evil enough to kill millions of innocent civilians. And if you do so then you not better then those who hated Jews and other minorities.

<p><i>They had sworn eternal faith to Adolf Hitler and they were his most ruthless

henchmen, men often seen as the very personifications of evil.</i></p>

 

<p>As Uncle Goose said, there were different groups. SS Galicia, for example, only fought

Soviets and did not participate in policing the internal territory.</p>

 

<p><i>These masterminds of death were found to be quite psychologically normal. They

were men of fine standing, husbands who morning and night kissed their wives, fathers

who tucked their children into bed.</i></p>

 

<p>So do you see them as personifications of evil or psychologically normal people? Evil

has no personality.</p>

 

<p><i>But murders, brutalities, cruelties, tortures, atrocities, and other inhuman acts

were an everyday occurrence.</i></p>

 

<p>That is true in the death camps. In the war zone it was like in a war zone.</p>

 

<p><i>In 1933 approximately nine million Jews lived in the countries of Europe that

would be occupied by Germany during the war. By 1945 two out of every three European

Jews had been killed by the SS Men. The Holocaust was the systematic annihilation of six

million Jews."</i></p>

 

<p>That is true. The way you state it here is almost like you are trying to position me as

one of the Holocaust deniers. Holocaust denial is criminal in my view, and it saddens me

how you emphasize your repetition of facts as if I was opposed to them.</p>

Eugene and Goose, in the USA and I'm sure most civilized countries, we do not separate the GOOD SS from the BAD SS. It is amazing to me that you are attempting to do so. How far off from that is denying the Holocaust?