The Auschwitz Album and the SS Album: Both Sides of the Barbed Wire Gate

      This blog entry concerns two photo albums each depicting a different side of the Auschwitz concentration camp. The albums are referred to as The Auschwitz Album (or the Lili Jacob Album) and the SS Album/ Karl Höcker Album. As visual evidence of the inside of Auschwitz is rare, these albums provide a rare glimpse into both the victims and the perpetrator’s experiences. Aside from these albums, the only photographs of Auschwitz are the identification photographs (“mug shots”) taken of prisoners upon arrival. The albums therefore provide a more complete picture into the now infamous concentration camp which has come to symbolize the Holocaust.

 

 Part I

A page depicting the arrival of women and children on the Birkenau arrival platform known as the "ramp". The Jews were removed from the deportation trains onto the ramp where they faced a selection process - some were sent immediately to their deaths, while others were sent to slave labor.

      The Auschwitz Album depicts the May 1944 arrival and selection process of Hungarian Jews from the Transcarpathian Rus (then part of Hungary, now part of the Ukraine). Many of the Jews came from the Berehovo Ghetto, which was a collecting point for Jews in the area. They arrived on May 26, 1944. Two professional SS photographers, most likely Ernst Hoffman or Bernhard Walter, took the photographs of the selection process. The photographers were also in charge of the identification photos of prisoners. The photos depict the entire process except for the killing itself. The album was originally titled “Resettlement of Jews from Hungary” (Hellmann, ix). The reason for the photographs being taken is unclear. It was not used for any propaganda or personal uses. Historians have determined that it may have been created as a reference source for a higher authority, as this was done for other concentration camps (Yad Vashem).

      The deportation of Hungarian Jews had reached its height by the early summer of 1944. A special rail line had even been extended from outside the camp to a ramp inside the camp to ‘accommodate’ the increased transports. Photographs also show the selection process on the ramp, how SS doctors and wardens separated those who were fit for forced labor and those who were to be killed immediately in the gas chambers. There are also photos of women who have been deloused and had their heads shaven. Additional photos show prisoners sorting through personal belongings in ‘Canada’- a section of the camp where all the personal belongings of the prisoners were sorted and stored. A total of 193 photographs were taken and bound in an album.

Jews who were classified as “not fit for work” waiting in a grove outside Crematorium IV before they were to be gassed. The vast majority had no idea what fate awaited them (Yad Vashem).

Prisoners sorting through the personal belonging of the recent arrivals in the section known as ‘Canada.’ Those who worked here were under the constant supervision of SS guards.

      The album was found after the war by survivor Lili Jacob (later Zelmanovic Meier) in an abandoned SS barracks, where she was recovering from typhus after liberation. Going through the album, Jacob identified herself, her rabbi, neighbors, and relatives-- she even found a photograph of her younger brothers. While Jacob kept the album, she never kept it a secret. News of the existence of the album was published many times. She was even called to present the album as testimony at the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials (in which former Auschwitz commandant Karl Höcker was a defendant) in the 1960s (Yad Vashem). Some photographs are missing, presumably because Jacob gave them to survivors who identified their relatives in the photographs. In 1983, after meeting with Nazi hunter Serge Klarsfeld, Jacob donated the album to the Yad Vashem Museum in Israel, where it is held today.

Yisrael and Zelig Jacob, Lili Jacob’s younger brothers.

      As stated, the significance of the album is great, as it provides a look into the arrival process at Auschwitz-Birkenau.  The album was important in the Auschwitz trials. When former SS guards stated that they were never at the camp itself, the photos proved otherwise. Also, some say that depictions of Auschwitz and concentration camps in film are influenced by the album as well. Upon examination of the photographs, it is evident that the photographers had full access to work in the camp. Some pictures are taken from the top of boxcars, allowing photographers to get shots of the rows of people and from the head of the columns where the actual selection took place. A section of the album shows that the photographers walked deep into the camp close to the prisoners, getting shots of those unfit for forced labor waiting in a wooded area of the camp to be sent to the gas chambers. In some photos, the photographers explicitly kept out the SS men from the photos. Below is one example of the shadow of one SS guard holding a cane/whip (?) revealing his presence.

Here, elderly and unfit people wait to walk to the Lagerstrasse, visible to the right of the base of the guard tower (Hellman, 94). Note the elongated shadow which betrays the presence of an SS guard and reveals that attempts were made to keep guards out of the photographs.

      The album now is proof of the extent to which the Nazis tortured prisoners and how each aspect of the prisoner’s time in the camp was deliberately thought out. It is a testament to the crimes committed.

 

Part II

       The SS Album was the personal album of SS-Obersturmführer Karl Höcker, the adjutant to the commandant of Auschwitz, SS-Sturmbannführer Richard Baer. Karl Höcker was a career concentration camp officer. Höcker was stationed at Auschwitz from May 1944 until the evacuation of the camp in January 1945 (USHMM). The SS album depicts Höcker and officers in Auschwitz in the summer and fall of 1944. The album includes documentation of official visits and ceremonies as well as personal photographs depicting the social activities that the Auschwitz camp staff enjoyed. Many of the remarkable photographs are taken at Solahütte, an SS resort 30 km south of Auschwitz but within the ground of the Auschwitz complex. Guards who performed their duties at Auschwitz well were rewarded with special leave for a trip to Solahütte (USHMM). Several pages of the album record a day trip of the SS Helferinnen, young women who worked managing the telecommunications between Auschwitz and Berlin and Auschwitz and the other camps. While the album belonged to Höcker, he is in many of the photographs, so the photographer of many of the pictures is unknown. The album was kept for personal use, though it is uncertain whether Höcker shared the album with anyone.

       In 2006, a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel and former member of the Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) wrote to the United Sates Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives notifying them that he had photographs of Auschwitz. The CIC conducted investigations of Nazi perpetrators for U.S. prosecutors after the war. In 1946, while in Germany, the officer found the album in an abandoned apartment in Frankfurt and had taken it home. In January 2007, the album was donated by the officer who wished to remain anonymous (USHMM).

       The process of identifying the owner of the album recalls the class discussion on photograph dating and identification. The captions in the album are mostly phrased “me and…” and the “me” is never specified. However, USHMM archivist Rebecca Erbelding and staff members studied the dates of the photographs, the insignia and adjutant cords on the uniform of the album’s owner to identify that the album belonged to the high-ranking SS-Obersturmführer Karl Höcker. Further examination of the insignia of others uniforms helped identify six other high ranking officers of Auschwitz in one rare photograph: Otto Moll, the supervisor of the gas chambers; Rudolf Höss, Richard Baer, Josef Kramer; and Franz Hössler, who was the head of the women’s camp at Birkenau; and Josef Mengele (USHMM). The picture is included below:

An accordionist leads a group of SS officers in a sing-along at the Solahütte resort. On the bottom row are: Karl Höcker, Otto Moll, Rudolf Höss, Richard Baer, Josef Kramer, Franz Hössler, and Dr. Josef Mengele.

      The album is remarkable for what is shown and what is not shown. The album shows the officers and others enjoying themselves and relaxing. If the men had not been wearing uniforms, it would be hard to identify them as camp officers. Six photographs show Höcker passing out bowls of blueberries to a group of young women. In the last photo, the girls turn the bowls over to show that there is no more. One girl pretends to cry at the loss of blueberries. The viewer can only think of the prisoners who were starving while the photograph was being taken. As exclusion is just as important as inclusion, it is vital to note that the photographs do not depict any acts of cruelty or violence, even in the photographs of the officers at Auschwitz. This suggests that the photographer(s) only wanted to record the positive aspects and ‘benefits’ of working at Auschwitz.


Höcker passes out blueberries. The original caption reads “Hier gibt es Blaubeeren” (There are blueberries here.) In the bottom right photo, in the middle of the row, one of the young women pretends to cry that there are no more blueberries.

The six photographs show the SS auxiliary women arriving at the lodge. The original caption reads “On the terrace of the lodge.”

       One set of photographs in the album were taken three weeks before the Soviet liberation of the camp. They depict a funeral after a “Terrorangriff” (terror attack). Rather than a small ceremony, the funeral is very large in scale: there is a color guard, a parade, women and children gather and mourn in front of the flag-draped coffins. The fact that such a large ceremony was held at such a late date suggests that the guards had not come to terms with the fact that the war was nearly over.

Photographs of a funeral for SS men killed in the December allied bombing of Auschwitz. The caption reads: “Beisetzung von SS Kameraden nach einem Terrorangriff” (Burying our SS comrades after a terror attack). (USHMM)

       While the long-term significance of the photographs cannot be determined now, it is clear that the SS album provides unique insight into the people who worked at Auschwitz. The photographs show us the human side of criminals. However, as each viewer looks at the photos with their own experiences, the photographs can tell us something about ourselves and the human capacity for evil. It is comfortable for us to think of the Nazis as monsters. They were not monsters though- they were human beings who committed crimes against humanity. These photographs show that they, like us, are human. Since we know that these people did monstrous things, it raises questions about our own capacity for evil. The people in the photographs look like ordinary people- “one of us.” Yet, if they are capable of committing crimes, are we? Though unsettling, it is necessary to think about, especially when viewing these photographs.

 

Part III

       It is important to compare these two albums because the photographs were taken at the same time (though the SS album covers a longer period of time). Karl Höcker arrived in Auschwitz only several days before the transport of Hungarian Jews depicted in the Auschwitz album arrived. While SS officers played, prisoners depicted in the Auschwitz album died. These two albums show that the SS created two starkly different realities of Auschwitz. They show the experiences of both perpetrators and victims in the same place, which is uncommon in Holocaust imagery. These two different sides to the experience in Auschwitz help create a more complete picture for those who study the subject. There are no prisoners or immoral actions in the SS album, but there is a sense of amorality in the album. It captures those in charge enjoying themselves, seemingly oblivious to extent of the crimes they are perpetrating.

      These albums show that “photographs furnish evidence…a photograph passes for incontrovertible proof that a given thing happened” (Sontag, 5). This is especially true of photography relating to war and suffering. Something has to be seen to be believed and many of us don’t believe things until we see pictures of them. Even if we are presented with textual information, many of us want to see images of the subject. “Photographs give us information…very packaged and they give us the information that we are prepared to recognize obviously. It’s as if words don’t have the weight they should have” (Sontag, “Photography within the Humanities,” 64). And even after repeated viewings, we still look at them with the same horror. The photographs of the Holocaust have retained their ethical content over time, and “have gained the status of ethical reference points” (Sontag, 21).

       With the Holocaust, photographs depict and represent things we are told to “never forget” so that the atrocities will not be repeated. This burden of memory creates a “retrospective witnessing by adoption” (Hirsch, 221). In viewing these photographs and other visual representation of the Holocaust and remembering them, we adopt the memories and images as part of our own life story (Hirsch, 221). In viewing the images, we become witnesses as well. This raises many ethical questions – which I am not qualified to answer. However, it is important that after viewing these images, we remember what they tell us about Holocaust history and about ourselves.

Author's Note: The author asks the reader to please view the online exhibits created by the Yad Vashem Museum and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum concerning these albums. They contain a lot more information about two important historical artifacts. The links are below. Thank you.

Sources

Hellman, Peter. The Auschwitz Album: A Book Based Upon an Album Discovered by a Concentration Camp Survivor, Lili Meier. New York: Random House, 1981.

Hirsch, Marianne. “Surviving Images: Holocaust Photographs and the Work of Postmemory.” In Visual Culture and the Holocaust, edited and with an introduction by Barbie Zelizer, 214-246. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2001.

Sontag, Susan. “Photography within the Humanities.” In The Photography Reader, edited by Liz Wells, 59-66. New York: Routledge, 2003.  

Sontag, Susan. On Photography. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1977.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), “Auschwitz through the lens of the SS: Photos of Nazi leadership at the camp.” 2012. http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/ssalbum/?content=1.

Yad Vashem The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, “The Auschwitz Album.” 2012. http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/album_auschwitz/index.asp.