Auschwitz durch die Linse der SS

Die fotografische Inszenierung des Holocaust

Our visual representation of the Nazi concentration camps, but also of other crime scenes such as the murder sites of “Aktion Reinhardt” and thus of the Shoah, is mainly shaped by photographs of the executioners and not of the victims. Thousands of photographs of the SS dominated camp imagery from 1933 to 1945, including Karl Otto Koch’s albums from the Sachsenburg, Columbia, Esterwegen, Sachsenhausen and Buchenwald concentration camps, Karl Höcker’s album from Auschwitz and the so-called Lili Jacob album.

In 1944, a large number of photographs were taken at the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp. Most of them are attributed to the SS photographers Bernhard Walter and Ernst Hofmann. An album found by Holocaust survivor Lili Jacob was made during the deportation of more than 430,000 Jews from Hungary to Auschwitz. Many of the subtly violent photos show the arrival of large groups in the camp from a distance, while others show the organisation of the genocide up close. Some photos show selections or ‘camp work’, others the transport trains and the suitcases and clothes of those deported and murdered, and still others the extermination facilities. The lecture analyses the genesis and ideological context of the album and replaces the images in these contexts. The critical analysis of the photos thus breaks the album’s intention – to stage the crime against humanity planned and perpetrated by the Nazis at Auschwitz and elsewhere as a rational act.

Main organizer(s): MemoShoah

Language: DE

Duration: 90'

Free entry upon registration: billetterie@neimenster.lu