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.
During the historical examination of the Holocaust, the concentration camps, and the Nazi war crimes, much of the focus seems to be on the Nazis rather than their victims either individually or collectively (with the exception of six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust). Perhaps this is done deliberately. The more we know about how the Nazis rose to power, the policies they enacted to stay in power, and above all, the crimes they committed might help us to understand how this could happen again. Most importantly, it will ensure we don’t forget and hopefully, stay vigilant for modern-day political abuses of power and similar policies that slowly erode democracy and individual freedoms (e.g., anti-Semitism, racism, calls for denouncements, elimination of the free press, arrests and imprisonment for anti-government positions, etc.).
One group of Nazis that has been well documented are the concentration camp doctors. These men and women are the Schutzstaffel, or SS doctors who performed medical experiments on camp inmates, participated in the sorting process, and committed crimes against humanity. They included Karl Brandt (1904−1948; executed), Herta Oberhauser (1911−1978; 20 years-released in 1952), Josef Mengele (1911−1979, drowned), Karl Gebhardt (1897−1948; executed), and Viktor Brack (1904−1948; executed), to name just a few.
SS-Gruppenführer Karl Gebhardt, doctor at KZ Ravensbrück and KZ Auschwitz-Birkenau. Gebhardt was found guilty of crimes against humanity and executed. Photo by Kurt Alber (c. 1944). Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-S73523/CC-BY-SA 3.0. PD-CCA-Share Alike 3.0 Germany. Wikimedia Commons.Nuremberg defendant, Dr. Herta Oberheuser, stands to receive her sentence at the Doctors’ Trial. Photo by anonymous (20 August 1947). United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo #41017. PD-U.S. Government. Wikimedia Commons.Dr. Karl Brandt, defendant in the Nuremberg trial known as the “Doctors’ Trial.” Brandt was found guilty of crimes against humanity and executed. Photo by anonymus (c. 1946-47). United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. PD-Author release. Wikimedia Commons.
Today, we are going to examine a different group of concentration camp doctors: the doctors who were prisoners. Read More Extermination Camp Doctors
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