The HolocaustLists about the WWII genocide, also called the Shoah, in which Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany systematically murdered some 11 million people, including Poles, homosexuals, the disabled, and approximately 6 million European Jews.
Few photos exist of concentration camps during the Holocaust; however, some remarkable images depict the abject horror of the period, and their implications are deeply disturbing. One such collection, dubbed the Auschwitz Album, was discovered after the Auschwitz evacuation in a separate camp by a survivor who recognized members of her slain family. This camp was over 400 miles away.
The woman who found the photos came from a transport of Hungarian Jews, photographed from the time they departed transport trains up until they were ushered into the gas chambers. They were taken by two SS photographers, one who served three years in a Polish jail and another who disappeared after WWII. The album was ultimately donated to the Israeli government to assist in the prosecution of Adolf Eichman.
Another cache came from the Hoecker Album, which included pictures taken by SS member Karl Friedrich Hoecker of the Auschwitz staff during leisure time. The carefree demeanor of the staff is truly striking when contrasted with their sinister endeavor. Actual photos taken by the Sonderkommando, the prisoner unit that conducted operations in the Auschwitz gas chamber, also survived, transported out of the camp by Polish resistance.Â
These photographs of concentration camp facilities provide a haunting reminder of the incredible cruelty and destruction of the Holocaust, as well as a warning to future generations of the horrors of fascism, intolerance, and indifference.Â
Elderly Woman And Children Walking To The Gas Chambers
