Photographs of Concentration Camp Prisoners Engaged in Mass Burial of Murdered Victims

Authors

Object ID

2019.2.91a-d

Object Name

Photograph

Date

1942

Files

Content Warning

The Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection consists of images, documents, and artifacts related to the Holocaust. The collection contains materials that depict a number of topics that may be difficult for viewers to engage with, including: antisemitic descriptions, caricatures, and representation of Jewish people; Nazi imagery and ideology; descriptions and images of German ghettos; graphic images of the violence of the Holocaust; and the creation of the State of Israel. For more information, see our policy page.

Description

90a: Men standing in back of truck, one with arm raised

.90b:Men unloading dead from truck

.90c: Men placing body in mass grave

.90d:Line of bodies

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:

These photographs appear to depict Jewish prisoners in a “Sonderkommando” brigade emptying a wagon of recently murdered Jews and burying the bodies in a pre-prepared burial pit. The Sonderkommando brigade typically followed a prescribed series of tasks commencing with the arrival of Jews from the transports: helping them in the undressing area arrange their clothing, allowing them to believe they would be taking a shower and be deloused before being reunited with their families. However, Sonderkommando personnel were not allowed to warn the victims of their impending fate. After entering the gas chambers, which in the more sophisticated camps could pack thousands of victims, the Sonderkommandos would wait until the gas administered by the SS would settle before removing the bodies, cleaning the chamber, processing the bodies -- searching for valuables, cutting the hair, removing the clothes, etc., all under the watchful eyes of the SS guards -- before taking the bodies to crematoria or to be buried in mass graves. Because their work was so physically demanding they were allowed to sleep in their own barracks on straw beds, allowed to keep some of the goods brought into the camp by the prisoners -- food, cigarettes, etc. -- and they were allowed to dress in their own clothing as can be seen in these photos.

Precisely because the Sonderkommandos were made to participate in murdering these victims, they were expendable to the SS, and most were eventually murdered themselves.

Dimensions

2 3/4 x 4 5/8"

Keywords

Concentration Camp, Mass Grave, Burial

Subcollection

Concentration

Recommended Citation

"Photographs of Concentration Camp Prisoners Engaged in Mass Burial of Murdered Victims" (1942). Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection. 2019.2.91a-d.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/bulmash/1467