Tag: International Military Tribunal

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The Auschwitz Portraitist

The Nazis were known to keep meticulous records on just about everything. Amazingly, this was also true about their desire to establish a photographic record of their crimes. We are familiar with Hitler’s favorite filmmaker and director, Leni Riefenstahl (1902−2003). She was not only a filmmaker but also a photographer and yes, a Nazi. Her movies included Olympia (1936 Berlin Olympics) and the propaganda film on the 1934 Nazi rally at Nuremberg. There was Heinrich Hoffmann (1885−1957), Hitler’s personal and official Nazi photographer. Hoffmann was part of Hitler’s inner circle and played a significant role in Goebbel’s propaganda program to elevate Hitler in the eyes of German citizens. Both of these individuals are quite well known due to their historical visibility. However, there was a group of photographers who are not quite as famous as the Nazi propagandists. These were the Auschwitz photographers and they were inmates selected by the camp’s commandant, SS-Hauptsturmführer Rudolf Höss.

Identity photographs of Auschwitz prisoners. Photographs by Wilhelm Brasse (c. 1940-45). Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.
Identity photographs of Auschwitz prisoners. Photographs by Wilhelm Brasse (c. 1940-45). Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.

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Hitler’s Enablers – Part Two – The Camps

Earlier this year, I wrote the blog, Hitler’s Enablers – Part One – Wannsee Conference. Click here to read the blog. The blog primarily dealt with the first and second level of enablers ⏤ senior Nazi leaders setting policy and leaving the formation of details and final implementation to the second layer. An “enabler” is someone who enables another to achieve an end.

Today, we will examine the third level of enablers. These were the men and women who were responsible for the administration and ultimately, ensuring the end result met senior Nazi leaders’ expectations. In other words, these were the people who carried out the day-to-day activities that ultimately resulted in the murder of millions of men, women, and children. Beginning with arrests and ending with the wholesale exterminations in the gas chambers, Hitler would not have been able to carry out his perverse vision without the assistance of hundreds of thousands of third level enablers.

Execution of Stutthof concentration camp overseers at Biskupia Górka. From left to right: Jenny-Wanda Barkmann, Ewa Paradies, Elisabeth Becker, Wanda Klaff, and Gerda Steinhoff. Further in the background is the guard SS-Oberscharführer Johann Pauls and several Polish kapos. Photo by Polish authorities (4 July 1946). PD-Polish Public Domain.
Execution of Stutthof concentration camp overseers at Biskupia Górka. From left to right: Jenny-Wanda Barkmann, Ewa Paradies, Elisabeth Becker, Wanda Klaff, and Gerda Steinhoff. Further in the background is the guard SS-Oberscharführer Johann Pauls and several Polish kapos. Photo by Polish authorities (4 July 1946). PD-Polish Public Domain.

As we will see, most of these people were sadistic thugs who had no compassion for other human beings. Many of the defendants could not comprehend why they were on trial after the war. The common defense position taken by Nazi war criminals was that they were only following orders ⏤ all fingers pointed to Adolf Hitler ⏤ and when that didn’t work, they boiled it down to “Victor’s Justice.” Read More Hitler’s Enablers – Part Two – The Camps