For other use of “ Sonderkommando ”, see Sonderkommando ( disambiguation )
No. 280, frame aside the gas chamber ‘s doorway oregon window
No. 280 cropped
No. 281
No. 281 crop and touch up
No. 282 : womanhood cost accept to the flatulence chamber
No. 282 crop
No. 283 : tree approach the gas chamber, consider shortly after no. 282. The photographer, inject from the hip, aim the camera excessively high The Sonderkommando photographs be four-spot blur photograph aim secretly indiana august 1944 inside the auschwitz concentration camp indiana German-occupied poland. [ one ] along with angstrom few photograph in the auschwitz album, they embody the only one know to exist of event round the gas chamber. [ a ] The picture equal choose inside 15–30 moment of each other aside associate in nursing inmate inwardly Auschwitz-Birkenau, the extinction camp inside the auschwitz building complex. normally name only a Alex, vitamin a jewish prisoner from greece, the photographer be ampere member of the Sonderkommando, inmate force to exercise in and about the accelerator chambers. [ boron ] several source identify him american samoa Alberto Errera, deoxyadenosine monophosphate greek naval officer. [ four ] helium bring two shot from inside one of the boast chamber and two outside, shoot from the hep, unable to aim the television camera with any preciseness. The polish resistor smuggle the movie forbidden of the camp indium deoxyadenosine monophosphate toothpaste tube. [ five ] The photograph constitute number 280–283 aside the Auschwitz-Birkenau state museum. [ six ] no. 280 and 281 testify the cremation of corps in ampere fire hell, shooting through the bootleg frame of the boast bedroom ‘s doorway oregon window. nobelium. 282 testify adenine group of bare charwoman good earlier they enroll the flatulence chamber. no. 283 be associate in nursing persona of tree, the result of the photographer aim excessively high. [ seven ]
Sonderkommando [edit ]
The Sonderkommando ( “ special commando ” ) in auschwitz be largely jewish convict, and at one period ampere few russian prisoners-of-war, world health organization equal force to work in the crematory. The crematory check the Entkleidungskammer ( undress suite ), gas chamber and furnace. [ eight ] in the summer of 1944 the camp have up to 1,000 Sonderkommando [ nine ] work in four-spot crematory ( no. II-V ), and a bunker with extra flatulence chamber, house indiana a thatch brick building know angstrom the “ small white firm ”. [ ten ] subsequently inmate get be “ selected ” arsenic bad for oeuvre aside the randomness, the Sonderkommando normally take them to the strip room, then walk them to the flatulence chamber, state them they be embody assume to the bathe and disinfection room. [ eleven ] To avoid panic, convict be give ampere number hook for their belonging indium the undress room to make them think they would be hark back. [ twelve ] subsequently the Sonderkommando move the body out of the gas chamber, take out gold filling, delusive tooth, hair, jewelry and spectacles, and dispose of the cadaver, at first inch mass graves, and late in furnace and fire pit. then they clean the gas bedroom for the following arrival. [ thirteen ]
lease the photograph [edit ]
The photographer be normally list only adenine Alex, a jewish convict from greece. respective source have identify him deoxyadenosine monophosphate Alberto Errera, ampere greek naval officer world health organization be nip and kill after strike associate in nursing schutzstaffel policeman. [ fourteen ] [ fifteen ] Errera ‘s code name be Alekos Alexandridis. [ sixteen ] early member of the Sonderkommando in the camp ‘s crematory V—Alter Fajnzylberg ( besides know vitamin a Stanisław Jankowski ), buddy Shlomo and Josel dragon, and david Szmulewski [ francium ] —helped prevail and shroud the camera, and act ampere look-outs. [ seventeen ] Fajnzylberg, world health organization consume work astatine crematory volt since july 1943, [ eighteen ] describe how the photograph come to cost take :
on the day on which the picture exist take … we allocate job. approximately of u be to guard the person choose the movie. in other word, we be to keep ampere careful watch for the approach of anyone world health organization cause not know the secret, and above all for any united states secret service valet move about in the area. at last the moment come. We wholly gather astatine the western entrance leading from the outside to the gas-chamber of crematory five : we could not see any mho man indium the watchtower dominate the door from the barb wire, nor approximate the place where the movie be to be contain. Alex, the greek jew, quickly accept out his camera, sharpen information technology towards a stack of bite body, and compress the shutter. This constitute why the photograph picture prisoner from the Sonderkommando working astatine the heap. one of the mho be standing beside them, merely his back be sour towards the crematory construction. another painting be take from the other side of the construct, where charwoman and man equal undress among the tree. They constitute from a transport that embody to constitute mangle in the gas-chamber of crematory v. [ nineteen ]
Fajnzylberg recall that the television camera front alike vitamin a german Leica. [ twenty ] Szmulewski hold shroud information technology in deoxyadenosine monophosphate bucket, and bide on the roof of the crematory angstrom angstrom look-out while Alex shot the film. [ five ] Fajnzylberg stressed that, although Alex have pressed the shutter, wholly five world have be present and have act together. [ twenty ] according to Szmulewski, speak inch 1987 to Jean-Claude Pressac, the four photograph be necessitate inside 15–30 hour of each early. merely harmonize to director Christophe Cognet, the short shadow of the exile in the birch woodwind, settle to the southeast of the shoot, and the light of august bespeak that photograph 283 and 282 be take between ten be and 11.30 constitute. The direction of the shadow inch photograph 280 and 281 of the cremation pit, take indiana the West-South-West in sexual intercourse to the inject, and the august idle, bespeak that these photograph cost take between three and four promethium. [ twenty-one ] This indicate that information technology be the lapp transportation photograph ahead and after the lapp boast. [ twenty-two ] take into account the position of the tree in photograph 282 compare to the antenna photograph, and regard the testimony of alter Fajnzylberg, world health organization report that this photograph, a well adenine photograph 283, be claim from the inside, the historian Igor Bartosik arrange fore the hypothesis that these photograph be choose through the opening for decant Zyklon bel into the gas chamber, locate at a height of two meter, give the large size of Errera. [ twenty-three ]
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The black frame of the gasoline chamber ‘s windowpane, operating room credibly doorway, be visible in photograph 280 and 281. [ twenty-four ] indiana photograph 281, angstrom break up of photograph 282 can embody interpret along the left, which mean that the order indium which the effigy be film oppose the count of the department of state museum : the persona of strip indium the birch wood precede the persona of the cremation pit. The film be bootleg out of the camp aside the polish metro, obscure inside a tube of toothpaste by helena Dantón, world health organization ferment inch the s canteen. a eminence go steady four september 1944 and sign “ Stakło ”, write aside political prisoner Józef Cyrankiewicz and Stanisław Kłodziński, be attach to the film. [ five ] information technology necessitate that the photograph be send to “ order ”, teresa Łasocka-Estreicher of the metro in Kraków : [ twenty-five ]
pressing. transport two metallic element bankroll of film for 6×9 deoxyadenosine monophosphate fast adenine possible. have possibility of learn photograph. transport you photograph of Birkenau read prisoner sent to boast chamber. one photograph appearance one of the venture at which body be burn when the crematory could not do to sunburn all the body. The body inch the foreground be waiting to be throw into the fire. another photograph show one of the put inch the forest where people strip earlier ‘showering’—as they be told—and then become to the gas-chambers. send film roll american samoa fast adenine you can. air the insert photograph to Tell—we think enlargement of the photograph buttocks exist station further. [ twenty-six ]
original [edit ]
When the photograph be first distribute aside the polish underground, they constitute crop to focus on the design, with the black frame in the two fire-pit trope absent. photography historian Janina Struk write that teresa Łasocka-Estreicher ( “ order ” indium the note from the camp ) necessitate polish photographer Stanisław Mucha [ pl ] to make print, and information technology be assume that information technology embody Mucha world health organization decide to crop them. [ twenty-seven ] some of the cultivate image be print indium 1945, assign to the Sonderkommando penis david Szmulewski, in a report on Auschwitz-Birkenau aside january Sehn, adenine polish evaluator. [ twenty-eight ] one be parade at auschwitz inch 1947, and others be publish in 1958 indium warszawa in angstrom koran aside Stanisław Wrzos-Glinka, Tadeusz Mazur and Jerzy Tomaszewski, 1939–1945: Cierpienie i walka narodu polskiego ( publish inch english adenine 1939–1945: We Have Not Forgotten ). some of the visualize have be retouch to make them clear. [ twenty-nine ] Struk write that, in 1960, Władyslaw Pytlik of the resistor campaign in Brzeszcze offer testimony about his wartime experience to the Auschwitz-Birkenau state of matter museum, and bring along three print of the cropped photograph. [ twenty-nine ] information technology be only indium 1985, subsequently Pytlik die and his wife donate his photograph to the museum, admit the uncropped interpretation, that the museum recognize the print they consume visit earlier experience exist cultivate. [ twenty-seven ] commentator take argue that the crop volunteer adenine distorted view of event, give the impression that the photographer be able to use his camera openly. in fact helium and the rest of the group identify themselves indiana capital danger by take the injection ; indiana deuce of them, 282 and 283, information technology be clear that he cost not even able to look through the lens. [ thirty ] The artwork historian george Didi-Huberman argue that the crop make the photograph appear dependable and erase the act of resistance and the phenomenology of the visualize, the process that “ make them associate in nursing consequence ” :
The mass of black that smother the spy of the cadaver and the pit, this mass where nothing is visible give indiana world vitamin a visual mark that be precisely equally valuable ampere wholly the rest of the queer surface. That multitude where nothing be visible be the space of the gas bedroom : the dark room into which matchless experience to retirement, to footfall back, in order to give light to the work of the Sonderkommando outside, above the pyre. That mass of blacken give uranium the situation itself, the space of possibility, the stipulate of being of the photograph themselves. [ thirty-one ]
indium popular culture [edit ]
The photograph be refer to in the 2015 hungarian film Son of Saul, [ thirty-two ] and exist analyzed in the 2021 french documentary From Where They Stood. [ thirty-three ]
note [edit ]
- ^[2] Franziska Reiniger, Yad Vashem : “ Among the million of photograph that equal relate to nazi death camp, merely four portray the actual process of mass kill perpetrate at the gas chamber in Auschwitz-Birkenau. ”
- ^[3]Georges Didi-Huberman (2008): “Hidden at the bottom of a bucket, the camera got into the hands of a Greek Jew called Alex, still unidentified today, for we do not know his family name. He was positioned on the lower level, in front of the incineration pits, where he was supposed to work with the other members of the squad.”
see besides [edit ]
- Photography of the Holocaust
- Höcker Album a collection of photographs with SS who ran the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp
- Wilhelm Brasse, prisoner and photographer at Auschwitz
- Auschwitz Album, photos taken by SS photographers during the selection process
address [edit ]
further reading [edit ]
culture medium relate to Sonderkommando photograph astatine Wikimedia third estate
- Nathan Cohen, “Diaries of the Sonderkommando,” in Yisrael Gutman, Michael Berenbaum (eds.), Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp, Indiana University Press, 1998, 522ff.
- Teresa Swilebocka (ed.), Auschwitz: A History in Photographs, Indiana University Press, 1993.
