Posted on 09/19/2007 1:01:30 PM PDT by mojito
Last December, Rebecca Erbelding, a young archivist at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, opened a letter from a former United States Army intelligence officer who said he wanted to donate photographs of Auschwitz he had found more than 60 years ago in Germany.
Ms. Erbelding was intrigued: Although Auschwitz may be the most notorious of the Nazi death camps, there are only a small number of known photos of the place before its liberation in 1945. Some time the next month, the museum received a package containing 16 cardboard pages, with photos pasted on both sides, and their significance quickly became apparent.
As Ms. Erbelding and other archivists reviewed the album, they realized they had a scrapbook of sorts of the lives of Auschwitz’s senior SS officers that was maintained by Karl Höcker, the adjutant to the camp commandant. Rather than showing the men performing their death camp duties, the photos depicted, among other things, a horde of SS men singing cheerily to the accompaniment of an accordionist, Höcker lighting the camp’s Christmas tree, a cadre of young SS women frolicking and officers relaxing, some with tunics shed, for a smoking break.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
There is nothing quite as happy as a well rested Schutzstaffel man.
Regards
It’s interesting that they’re putting up a Christmas tree only three weeks before abandoning the camp in front of the Russians.
for later
Simply amazing, and frightening!
Thanks for posting.
I wish they could have come up with a better word than “guardians.” It sounds too benevolent.
loss of words.....more than disturbing
I will show these pics to my children, so they will know what the face of evil looks like.
There. Fixed it.
Banality of Evil bump.
bump!
...well Iran says this didn’t happen, so these pictures are obviously fake...
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
L
I’m glad these photos became available at this time. There is so much pressure in some areas to forget the Holocaust.
I took my kids to the Holocaust Museaum. They had a lot of questions to ask and they have never forgotten that trip.
Several years later my father took my son again when they were on vacation together. My son is a combat medic, a soft-hearted soul that would like to save the world. I’m glad he has a real clear idea of what evil looks like.
I'll ask my fellow FReepers.....I have photos' of the KKK in Alabama, big crosses set up in the mountains, little kids in clan outfits, women in grand wizard outfits......etc....all dated and signed by the photographer....and before anyone asks...no....it's not my family, they were found in an old suitcase......should I send these on to a museum or just sell them on ebay and such?
They look human on the outside.
?!?!?! Which bank was this??? I can see civilized society extending some forgiveness to young, lowly soldiers who got caught up in all this after growing up knowing nothing but Nazi rule, but this guy was in a position of authority and in his 30s when he was "serving" in this role.
“Springtime for Hitler and Germany....”
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