Auschwitz Officer Scrapbook

[Shearer]

Next week, the Holocaust Memorial Museum will present an online photo gallery depicting candid shots of Auschwitz officers, SS Helferinnen, doctors and nurses near the end of the war.

From the article: "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.

For example, one of the H??cker pictures, shot on July 22, 1944, shows a group of cheerful young women who worked as SS communications specialists eating bowls of fresh blueberries. One turns her bowl upside down and makes a mock frown because she has finished her portion.

On that day, said Judith Cohen, a historian at the Holocaust museum in Washington, 150 new prisoners arrived at the Birkenau site. Of that group, 21 men and 12 women were selected for work, the rest transported immediately to the gas chambers."


Link to Boing Boing feature

Link to original article

Link to NY Times slideshow and commentary

The NY Times feature is really worth looking at... it's only a few minutes long and provides a little background for the scrapbook along with some stunning photos.

 

[MrBern]

I'm always surprised that the mirth in German military photos. Its such a juxtoposition against their relentless pursuit of 'order'.

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

I'm always surprised that the mirth in German military photos. Its such a juxtoposition against their relentless pursuit of 'order'.

Yeah, it's surreal, even creepy. They look thoroughly convinced that they were doing the right thing and that they would prevail. Even near the end of the war.

 

[Viola]

Those pictures freak me out. Seriously. That's the creepiest thing ever.

 

[carter]

The commentary during the slideshow speaks of "the banality of evil".

Looking at the photos on the links, we see people who seem to be going about their normal lives. The horror of what they are engaged in has become trivialized. The unimaginable has become commonplace.

Hitler is the most-commonly-recognized face of Nazi Germany and it's goal of eradicating an entire race as well as others deemed undesirable. What of those who willingly followed him as exhibited in these photos?

This is the true face of evil.

 

[Spitfire]

Just like "Der Untergang" showed that even Hitler had his moments of love, affection and care for other people - these people are just ordinary people doing extraordinay - evil - things.

The bad guys dont have horns and tails - would be easier,though.
And the good guys sometimes looks like badguys.

Anyway - these photos makes you think.
What was it, that brought them to do what they did? Fear, hate, trust...can we all be brought in that situation?
Some resent pictures from a certain prison in Iraq jumps to mind. (Not trying to start a political debate here.)
It just showes that some people brought in the right - or wrong - situation, are willing and capable to do almost anything.

 

[Matt Deckard]

Evil is freaky, especially in it's belief that is is the good or trying to make a more orderly society by alienating and spreading hate to push it's ideal of friendship. The Nazi's were evil to the core though ask one durring the days of the reign of the third reich and i'm sure they will say they were doing good.

It is hindsight that makes them see their evil and their true intentions.

 

[Twitch]

I must agree with Spitfire in regard to villifying the Nazis from our haughty perch over 60 years hence. So you have photos from all over the Reich with smiling German military personnel. What the hell does that prove? I find this continual obsession with events from the Holocaust similar to those that secretly worship the regal and ostentatious nature, the pomp and circumstance of Nazi rites and medal fixation.

We all agree that the Holocaust was an evil thing but every German was not evil nor were the majority of the population even Nazis- less that 1 in 4 ever joined the party.

Today we have way-outters who are convinced some politician in some particular country is completely ruining the world. It is simply a matter of perspective if we evaluate who is doing good or bad. In any society we have a huge cross section of citizens with points of view and values. We could say that Americans are evil because they allow an unjust war to continue. Of course that point of view may not be the mainstream one. So are Americans evil? And aren't most of your country's government personnel convinced they are doing the right thing too? They may not be practicing genocide but their actions have deep and lasting effects on your country.

The NDASP- Nazi political party was no more evil that democrats or republicans in the intent it originally had. It was simply a socialist workers' party that was attempting to elevate the standard of the German worker after 2 decades of poverty due to the unforgiving nature of the Allies at the end of WW I. All the genocidally related crap that spilled forth later was the direct result of certian persons such as Hitler and others. The party itself was no different mechanically than similar ones in Russa, Italy, Romainia, Hungary etc.

As a historical writer I find it is usually those without a commanding background in WW 2 history that become wrapped up in these continual revisitations to the bad things that went on in Germany associated with the Holocaust.

They tend to lump all Germans together as Nazis and are not able to separate the daily routine during the war experienced by personnel on any side. The SS had some 12 branches. Were all SS evil to the core? No. Only 3 branches fought in combat or had anything to do with the camps. The remainder were logistical and bureaucratic enclaves and 1 involved in Indiana Jones archeological pursuits at the far corners of the planet.

There are almost none but perhaps a handful that actually participated to any degree in the Holocaust. We all applaude efforts to bring them to justice by searchers. But in a very short time NONE will be alive. What will the cry be then, that Germans collectively in subsequent generations are responsible?

I find the selling of the Holocaust interesting while most of you have absolutely no idea what perversion the Japanese Army perpetrated from the time they invaded Manchuria in 1932. The number of civilian souls taken in Asia are more than those from the Nazi camps.

On one hand we mete out harsh consternation at something that occurred 70 years ago yet are completely apethetic when tales of murderous genocide emerge from Africa today. Where, oh where is our indignant outrage then?

The Germans are good people and have come to terms with their haunting past. Its time the assinine, Nazi fixated, non-Germans do as well.

 

[Spitfire]

Well spoken Twitch. Thank you.:eusa_clap

 

[griffer]

...I find this continual obsession with events from the Holocaust similar to those that secretly worship the regal and ostentatious nature, the pomp and circumstance of Nazi rites and medal fixation.

Eeeep!

 

[Viola]

What an incredibly long-winded way to dismiss a historic interest as meaningless, biased, or even sick, Twitch.

 

[PrettySquareGal]

I must agree with Spitfire in regard to villifying the Nazis from our haughty perch over 60 years hence. So you have photos from all over the Reich with smiling German military personnel. What the hell does that prove? I find this continual obsession with events from the Holocaust similar to those that secretly worship the regal and ostentatious nature, the pomp and circumstance of Nazi rites and medal fixation.

I suspect that many who have been directly affected by the Holocaust would disagree. I find studying human nature fascinating and important in understanding history and contemporary issues as well as our own inner workings and for me personally, my family history.

 

[Spitfire]

...just like one can suspect people of palestinian or arab origin to be troubled with pictures of smiling israeli soldiers.
Or afghans or people from Iran might be a bit troubled by pictures of smiling, cokedrinking G.I.s.
We all know that you can not - and should not - judge a whole nation - a whole people - on things done by few. A long time ago.

This lounge is a brilliant example - or should be a brilliant example - of understanding and friendship across borders, cultures and history.

 

[dhermann1]

I agree with your general line of thought, Twitch. I've often said that I respect the Germans for the way they've really bent over backwards as a society to come to terms with their past. This contrasts very favorably with the total denial of Japan. Every society has skeletons in their closet. AA has a slogan, "You're only as sick as your secrets". The potential for this kind of evil lurks in all humans, and looking at it with open eyes can only be healthy. Also, I don't think that trying to put something into perspective is dismissing it. Focusing on the Holocaust to the exclusion of other comparable atrocities can only distort its meaning.
I think this post is getting a little rambling. I just wanted to add this:
I found an article about the arrest of Anna Freud by the Gestapo in 1938, that alludes to Freud's later work on the issue of authority and authoritarianism. I would like to find some of the books the article refers to.
http://chronicle.com/temp/reprint.php?id=w21j6dg70bpyn7c451bymnjv889k67p3
Basically, Freud seems to have been illuminating how even the Nazi movement was in its own perverse way an expression of natural human emotions and needs.

 

[PrettySquareGal]

This thread is about the Holocaust and a specific presentation:

"Next week, the Holocaust Memorial Museum will present an online photo gallery depicting candid shots of Auschwitz officers, SS Helferinnen, doctors and nurses near the end of the war."

Therefore this thread is by nature going to be "dismissive" of other important historical atrocities, whether current or past.

 

[Viola]

Any time you focus on studying a particular event, that is a moment you are, naturally, not studying another event. Or studying ancient Greek. That doesn't trivialize other historic events or the Iliad as inconsequential or "less important," you just can't be learning everything that is of value at once.

Besides which, I don't think anyone here broke into a conversation about Sudan or Rwanda or anywhere else to say that WWII is more important. Heck nobody even broke into a conversation about hat-band widths to talk about the Nazis.

This is a thread on a particular historic development and I'm a little confused as to why its so important to point out "it was long ago" and "they're all dead and more important things are going on" on a board more than happy to give time to the construction of jackets circa 1920.

 

[griffer]

It is sad that people find these photos so shocking.

The fact that it seems shocking only adds evidence to the conclusion I have come to- "Nazis" have become such an oversimplified cliche of evil that people, especially Americans, can't or won't accept that they were humans. All of them.

So part of me says big deal. Part of me says, my god why are you all so shocked?

Evil is an act. People do evil things, but no one believes what they are doing isn't justified at the moment of the act. We have to; it's a psychological pre-requisite for a positive action. And grim work leads to gallows humor and the human necessity for levity.

That's right, the 'evil' 2-dimensional cut-outs in snappy uniforms were people who thought they were doing right.

Those who look at these photos and think they are above it, well, that naivete will either get you sent to the next regime's camps or fitted in their uniform depending on the way the wind blows.

Has anyone read Himmlers cautions to the SS officers of the emotional and psycological toll their pogrom would cause? He convinced them they were martyrs, suffering to cleanse Germany. That's strong stuff folks.

Totalitatian regimes need the naive- both for victims and willing supporters.

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

How could one not find the photos somewhat shocking!?
To me, people that commit murder and every conceivable evil so casually, as the nazis depicted in the photos did, are not what I would consider to be normal people. In a word, psychopathic.Luckily, they were in the minority.

 

[Shearer]

Well, this thread has taken a turn I didn't expect... but what are the forums for, if not stimulating conversation?

Regarding what Twitch said:
As the thread-starter (and an American of German descent) let me say that I did not post the article as a means of vilifying the German people as a whole. Nor do I think that anyone who has responded here has anything but a healthy interest in the history surrounding these events. I only hoped to share information that I found interesting with others who may not have stumbled upon it.

Had I stumbled upon candid photos from the Philippines or from African battles, I most likely would have posted those as well. True, the Holocaust and the European theatre in general tend to receive the most media attention, but I should think any student of World War II is familiar with Japanese atrocities. I don't think anyone here wants to exclude any horrors of the war in order to focus on Nazis and the Holocaust. At least, I hope not

Honestly, as someone who loves vernacular photography I felt that the personal nature of the pictures taken within the context of historical events to be extremely fascinating from a photographical standpoint.

So I hope that anyone viewing them finds them to be at least interesting, and hopefully thought-provoking! So thanks for everyone's comments. I appreciate the debate.

(Besides, I thought that this topic would me much more interesting than the thread I had planned for ephemeral ads about Naugahyde Nauga monsters lol )

 

[J. M. Stovall]

I like you Shearer!