Nazi photography unit
Woman and children walk toward the gas chamber, summer 1944. Part of the
Auschwitz Album
, taken by the Erkennungsdienst.
[1]
In
German-occupied Poland
during
World War II
and
the Holocaust
, the
Politische Abteilung Erkennungsdienst
("Political Department Identification Service")
[2]
in the
Auschwitz concentration camp
was a
kommando
of
SS officers
and prisoners who photographed camp events, visiting dignitaries, and building works on behalf of the camp's commandant,
Rudolf Hoss
.
[1]
The
Erkennungsdienst
also took photographs of inmates, including gassings, experiments, escape attempts, suicides,
and portraits of registered prisoners (those not immediately murdered in the gas chambers) when they first arrived at the camp.
[4]
Led by its director, SS-
Hauptscharfuhrer
Bernhard Walter, and deputy director, SS-
Unterscharfuhrer
Ernst Hofmann,
[5]
the
Erkennungsdienst
took the 193 photographs that came to be known as the
Auschwitz Album
, which included images of
Hungarian Jews
in the summer of 1944 just before they were gassed.
[1]
[6]
Location and staff
[
edit
]
SS staff
[
edit
]
Established by Rudolf Hoss in December 1940 or January 1941,
[7]
the
Erkennungsdienst
was based on the ground floor of block 26 in
Auschwitz I
, where there was a studio and
darkroom
.
Bernhard Walter was director of the
Erkennungsdienst
.
He was born on 27 April 1911 in
Furth
, Bavaria, and joined the SS when he was 22, on 2 May 1933 (serial number 104168). He was assigned to the 2nd Brandenburg
Totenkopf
regiment at the
Sachsenhausen concentration camp
,
where he worked with Hoss and ran the camp's
Erkennungsdienst
.
[7]
Transferred to Auschwitz in 1941, he ran the Auschwitz
Erkennungsdienst
from 1 January 1941 until 18 January 1945.
After Auschwitz, he was transferred to the
Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp
.
Ernst Hofmann became deputy director of the
Erkennungsdienst
on 16 May 1941.
Other staff members included SS-
Unterscharfuhrer
Alfred Schmidt and SS-
Rottenfuhrer
Wenzel Leneis.
[5]
Prisoners
[
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]
Prisoners were assigned to work for the
Erkennungsdienst
as photographers and darkroom workers. Franz Maltz, a German inmate, was the
kapo
; he had been the
kapo
at the Sachsenhausen
Erkennungsdienst
. Other prisoners included
Wilhelm Brasse
(prisoner number 3444), Tadeusz Brodka (245), Eugeniusz Dembek (63764), Edward Josefsberg,
Bronisław Jureczek
(26672), Roman Karwat (5959), Leonid Koren (21953), Tadeusz Krzysica (120557), Tadeusz Myszkowski (593), Zdzisław Pazio (3078), Jozef Pysz (1420), Jozef Swiatloch (3529), Stanisław Tralka (660), Wladyslaw Wawrzyniak (9449), and Alfred Woycicki (39247).
[5]
Photographs
[
edit
]
One function of the
Erkennungsdienst
was to take three photographs of each newly registered prisoner (unregistered prisoners were murdered in the gas chambers on arrival), and to create prisoner identification papers with fingerprints. These details were circulated to the police in the event of an escape. If a prisoner died as a result of an escape attempt or suicide, the
Erkennungsdienst
took photographs of the body, which were added to the prisoner's file and forwarded to SS-WVHA Office Group D (the
Concentration Camps Inspectorate
). The
Erkennungsdienst
also photographed medical experiments and visiting dignitaries.
On 17 and 18 July 1942, Walter or Hofmann photographed
Heinrich Himmler
,
Reichsfuhrer
of the SS, during a visit to the camp.
[14]
It was the second time Himmler had inspected Auschwitz. He watched a gassing in its entirety, from the point of unloading the transport to emptying the gas chamber and burying the victims. He also inspected the
Kanada warehouses
and the women's camp, where he reportedly asked to see a flogging. At the end of the visit, he promoted
Rudolf Hoss
, the camp commandant, to
Obersturmbannfuhrer
.
[15]
In May 1944,
Richard Baer
became commandant of Auschwitz, while Hoss was promoted to
Standortaltester
(local SS garrison commander).
From May to August 1944, for reasons unknown, Walter and Hofmann photographed transports of Jews from their arrival at
Auschwitz II
to the gas chamber. The 193 photographs became known as the Auschwitz Album. It was used as evidence in the
Frankfurt Auschwitz trials
(1963?1965), during which Walter testified at first that he had not been the photographer, but eventually he acknowledged having taken some of the images. The album was also used as evidence in the 2015 trial of
Oskar Groning
in Luneburg, Germany.
[14]
Liberation of Auschwitz
[
edit
]
As the
Red Army
approached Auschwitz from the east in January 1945, the SS ordered that the camp be dismantled and abandoned. Efforts were made to destroy evidence and thousands of inmates were sent on a westwards
death march
. The
Erkennungsdienst
was ordered to destroy their photographs, supervised by Walter.
[17]
Walter saved the Auschwitz Album photographs and the photographs of Heinrich Himmler.
[14]
William Brasse, a prisoner who worked for the
Erkennungsdienst
, said he believed Walter and Hofmann took their images to the
Gross-Rosen concentration camp
, including film of medical experiments they had recorded for one of the camp doctors,
Josef Mengele
. Walter ordered Brasse and another prisoner,
Bronisław Jureczek, to burn the images of prisoners.
[18]
Jureczek said:
At the last minute, we were ordered to burn all the negatives and photographs in the Erkennungsdienst. We first put wet photographic paper and photographs into the tile stove in the studio, and then a mass of pictures and negatives. Stuffing such an amount of material into the stove blocked the smoke. As we made the fire, we were sure that only part of the photographs and negatives near the doors of the stove would burn, and that the fire would then go out from lack of air. ... I deliberately ... scattered a certain number of pictures and negatives around the studio to give an impression of haste. I could see that everyone was in too much of a hurry during the evacuation to gather everything up, and that something would be saved.
[18]
Before they left the camp on 18 January, Brasse said, they hid the negatives in the studio and boarded the door up behind them.
[18]
As a result, 38,916 photographs survived. After the camp's liberation, prisoners carried the images in bags to the
Polish Red Cross
in Cracow, and in 1947 they were added to the archives of the
Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum
.
[17]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
Wontor-Cichy, Teresa (2012). "Erkennungsdienst?The Identification Service at Auschwitz".
Wilhelm Brasse, Number 3444: Photographer, Auschwitz, 1940-1945
. Krakow and Brighton: Sussex Academic Press. p. 14.
- ^
Lasik, Aleksander
(2000). "Organizational Structure of Auschwitz Concentration Camp". In Długoborski, Wacław; Piper, Franciszek (eds.).
Auschwitz, 1940?1945. Central Issues in the History of the Camp
. Vol. I: The Establishment and Organization of the Camp. O?wi?cim: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. p. 184 (145?279).
ISBN
978-8385047872
.
- ^
Berkowitz, Michael
(2007).
The Crime of My Very Existence: Nazism and the Myth of Jewish Criminality
. University of California Press. pp. 97, 268, n. 129.
- ^
a
b
c
Brasse, Wilhelm
(2012).
Wilhelm Brasse, Number 3444: Photographer, Auschwitz, 1940-1945
. Krakow and Brighton: Sussex Academic Press. p. 42.
- ^
Struk, Janina (20 January 2005).
"
'I will never forget these scenes'
"
.
The Guardian
.
- ^
a
b
Struk, Janina (2004).
Photographing the Holocaust: Interpretations of the Evidence
. London and New York: I. B. Tauris. p. 103.
ISBN
978-1860645464
.
- ^
Dickerman, Michael (2017). "The Auschwitz Album". In
Paul R. Bartrop
, Michael Dickerman (eds.).
The Holocaust: An Encyclopedia and Document Collection
. Volume 1. ABC-CLIO. p.
52
(51?52).
- ^
Bumiller, Elisabeth
(25 August 1980).
"The 'Miracle' Album of Auschwitz"
.
The Washington Post
.
Archived
from the original on 5 July 2020.
- ^
a
b
c
Kreutzmuller, Christoph (26 January 2020).
"Das Auschwitz-Album der SS"
.
Der Spiegel
.
- ^
Czech, Danuta
(2000). "A Calendar of the Most Important Events in the History of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp". In Długoborski, Wacław;
Piper, Franciszek
(eds.).
Auschwitz, 1940?1945. Central Issues in the History of the Camp
. Vol. V: Epilogue. O?wi?cim: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. pp. 153?154 (119?231).
ISBN
978-8385047872
.
- ^
a
b
"Prisoners' photos"
.
Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum
.
- ^
a
b
c
?wiebocki, Henryk
(2000). Długoborski, Wacław;
Piper, Franciszek
(eds.).
Auschwitz, 1940?1945. Central Issues in the History of the Camp
. Vol. IV: The Resistance Movement. O?wi?cim: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. pp. 266?267.
ISBN
978-8385047872
.
Further reading
[
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]