Warsaw ghetto photos

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wm
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Re: Warsaw ghetto photos

#136

Post by wm » 15 Jun 2014, 23:51

Leon Goldstand and members of the Polish Army in France paying their respect to the unknown soldier buried in the Altare della Patria in 1926.
Altare_della_Patria.jpg
He would die a few months later. In Minakowski's genealogical database of the Polish historical élites he is honored with the notable/hero designation.
His daughter died in 1991, as his father - shortly after Poland regained its freedom.

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Re: Warsaw ghetto photos

#137

Post by wm » 22 Aug 2014, 18:51

From Heinrich Joest's collection, it's the same street where Stroop and his entourage would stroll nineteen months later.

The caption reads: I photographed this begging woman with fixed, staring eyes on Nowolipie Street as people went by. [Hanging] above her was a small placard advertising an office on 44 Nowolipie Street where German and Russian could be translated.
woman.jpg
It was incomprehensible, sausages were stacked in the display window of the butcher shop on Nowolipie Street, and in front of them sat a hungry beggar.
man.jpg
beggars.jpg
source: 1, 2.


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Re: Warsaw ghetto photos

#138

Post by Skyderick » 27 Sep 2014, 14:42

WM, I recommend you watch the documentary "A film unfinished". It contains several similar scenes from the Warsaw ghetto that were staged for propaganda, some even shown in several different takes. I found it very insightful.

Image
Photo by Willy Georg. Source: http://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa19586

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Re: Warsaw ghetto photos

#139

Post by wm » 27 Sep 2014, 21:30

Well, movies, documentaries, even reality television are generally staged.
The unfinished Das Ghetto wasn't different, it recreated more or less faithfully true events (except the orgy scenes) although still it was pure, one-sided propaganda - the poverty, the unequal social structure, anomie conditions, were all the Nazi doing, and they and only they were responsible.
The shops full of food, cafes, night clubs, beggars around them, people dying on the streets, bodies laying there for days were reality, and are well documented, for example in the then written Ringelblum archives.

Heinrich Joest, the photographer was an army sergeant who visited the Ghetto out of curiosity, and made those pictures using his own Rolleiflex camera.
The only strange thing is that top of the line, the best there was camera - out of reach for a sergeant in any army (Robert Capa used it too, in today's money it's $8000 if I'm not mistaken), but in his civilian life he was a presumably rather wealthy hotel owner.

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Re: Warsaw ghetto photos

#140

Post by wm » 01 Oct 2014, 20:12

It seems Joest, serving in Warsaw, picked up a few useful words and expressions (like translator) but he didn't quite understand the meaning of the ad he mentioned. It advertised an office specializing in writing applications, the translation (and typing services) were treated as less important.
The owner had to have a license to run his business, and didn't forget mention that:
podania.jpg
podania.jpg (14.61 KiB) Viewed 2857 times
On the right there is a placard advertising rubber stamps:
stemple.jpg
stemple.jpg (27.1 KiB) Viewed 2857 times
On the second picture there is an ad for (at first glance) a boxing match, but more likely for a stage play using the word boxing metaphorically in its title.
The place advertised was a night club called Melody Palace - famous for its the most beautiful legs in the Ghetto contest.
boks.jpg
boks.jpg (30.92 KiB) Viewed 2857 times
There is another ad for a huge hit in the Eldorado theater. The name of that hit is not visible unfortunately.
eldorado.jpg
eldorado.jpg (20.27 KiB) Viewed 2857 times
And there is an ad for manicure services if I'm not mistaken:
man.jpg
man.jpg (3.98 KiB) Viewed 2857 times

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Re: Warsaw ghetto photos

#141

Post by wm » 01 Oct 2014, 20:31

The price of the sausages (called krakowska and available today, too) in the shop's display window was 2 zlotys per 10 dkg.
A female servant made about 6 zlotys per day, an equivalent of about 600 calories in those sausages - less than half of daily caloric intake.
cena.jpg
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Re: Warsaw ghetto photos

#142

Post by wm » 03 Oct 2014, 12:39

It was calculated that shortly before the war half of a zloty bought 4000 calories.

The same street a year later, the SS and the Jewish Police select people to be send to Treblinka during the two-month-long Gross-Aktion Warsaw:
nowolipie.jpg
from: W. Bartoszewski, M. Edelman, I była dzielnica żydowska w Warszawie.

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Re: Warsaw ghetto photos

#143

Post by Skyderick » 16 Oct 2014, 00:32

One might expect that the Warsaw ghetto, as a place of unspeakable horror and misery, was avoided by photographers, but the contrary is true. Numerous sarcastic entries in Jewish ghetto diaries leave no doubt that a steady stream of German visitors poured into the ghetto, shamelessly inspecting and photographing sufferings which in their distorted view seem to have been perceived as proof of Jewish decadence rather than German inhumanity.
The majority of these picture-hungry tourists came from the ranks of soldiers on furlough and workers on organized "Strength through Joy" trips. To them the Warsaw ghetto was simply a kind of Baedeker sight, and they recorded its "picturesque" scenes with monstrous innocence for display in souvenir albums, as we must assume. Several diarists agree that the Jewish burial ground near Okopowa Street was the principal point of attraction for the German visitors. According to M. Zylberberg*: “... it was not only the funeral processions that made the cemetery so strangely lively, but the constant presence of hundreds of German soldiers. They gleefully photographed the dead and the accompanying relatives, and even went as far as taking snapshots of the corpses as they were laid out in the mortuary. The Nazis were particularly active in this respect on Sundays, when they would visit the cemeteries with their girlfriends. This, rather than the cinema, was a place of amusement for them"

- The Warsaw Ghetto in Photographs: 206 Views Made in 1941 by Ulrich Keller
* Michael Zylberberg - A Warsaw diary, 1939-1945

I don’t have the time to fully dissect Das Ghetto, but it is an explicit work of propaganda. The aim was to present the appalling conditions in the ghetto as a direct result of Jewish money hoarding, miserliness and racial inferiority. The vastly reoccurring motive throughout the film is that of hedonistic Jews ignoring their starving, dying kinsfolk. It was weaved into the most insignificant of scenes, so that hardly any viewer could leave the cinema untainted by the thick subconscious sediment. There are a couple of mirrored scenes in Das Ghetto that emphasize on the contrast between rich and poor quite distinctly, although as witness accounts confirm all the luxurious scenes were staged by the filmmakers:

A grand funeral marching through the streets and into the graveyard in contrast of a disgraceful slide into a mass grave for the famished poor:
Image

The moviemen first went to the Jewish cemetery, where they ordered the Jewish gravediggers to bring out an elaborate hearse which had been used at funerals of wealthy Jews before the war. Next, they produced a pair of handsome black horses, hitched them to the hearse and ordered two Jewish wagon drivers to put on their prewar frock coats and mount the driver's seat. Then, with the help of the Polish police and the Ordnungsdienst of the judenrat, the SS movie team staged an elaborate funeral procession, complete with a cast of mourners, consisting of Jews hand-picked from the streets because they happened to be wearing halfway decent clothing. The only prop missing was the corpse. In all likelihood this production was subsequently presented at movie theaters all over Germany to show the grand style in which Warsaw's Jews could still afford to bury their dead.

There is Always Time to Die by Adam Starkopf


A visit at Czerniakow’s luxurious apartment in contrast of a skeletal family residing in an unlit and dilapidated basement:
Image

V/15/1942 Czerniakow’s diary
In the morning the Kehilla. At home the film crew is expected at 8:30. I asked that a man and some women be hired to act the roles for the camera. They arrived at 8:45 and filmed until 12:30. They hung a sign on the door with an address. They brought two women and a "lover" to the apartment. Also an old Jew. In the afternoon the photographers took pictures in the bedroom of neighbors, the Zabludowskis. They brought a woman who put makeup on her face before the mirror. The photographers admired a carving of Confucius in my home and a sculpture Motherhood by Ostrzega. One asked if the Watteau on the wall was the original and I replied that the original was in the Berlin Museum and that this was only a poor reproduction.


A cheerful show at Teatr Nowy Azazel in contrast of rag wearing beggars dancing in the street.
Image

An account of the filming at the New Azazel is given in Yiddish in the documentary. I believe it to be that of Jonas Turkow, who is credited at the end of the movie and whose wife was the director of the theater. He describes how the crowd was randomly picked in the street by soldiers, treated to heavy beating when panic ensued, and lead into the theater. There they were held for several hours until the filming was finished, children included, without food and water or access to a lavatory. They were order to roar with laughter at comic scenes and cheer at the end of each act.

A luxurious restaurant in contrast of starved families eating in the streets:
Image

V/19/1942 Czerniakow’s diary
The photographers visited the Jewish restaurant. They ordered that food from the kitchen be brought to the tables. With great appetite the Jewish guests devoured all the courses, worth several thousand zlotys. The Council was informed that it would have to pay the restaurant owner the standard price. The ball is scheduled for tomorrow. In accordance with the photographer's demand, the prisoners were in a separate room. The "ladies" are to be dressed in evening gowns.

I myself witnessed the filming of a funeral specially staged for the purpose, and heard from an acquaintance, Shneurson by name, how he had been seized, forced into a restaurant, and compelled together with others to gorge himself until he almost vomited, while living skeletons stood around looking at the “feast” and the bodies of dying persons were placed at the door. Of course, there was inequality in the ghettos, there was selfishness, harshness and also corruption…

Testimony of Dr. Nathan Eck
The Nazi Holocaust. Part 6: The Victims of the Holocaust by Michael Robert Marrus


A “Ball”:
Image

V/21/1942 Czerniakow’s diary
Avril* came to the Kehilla and was greatly enraged at First, for the blunders that were apparently made during the filming. In the afternoon a hall was made ready for the cameramen. A dance is to take place there tomorrow at 8:30 with champagne, etc. Someone appeared from the Jewish police and announced that Avril was expecting me to serve as the host at the dance the following day. I answered that at 8:30 I was due, together with Lejkin, at Brandt's. He answered that he would try to release me from the appointment with Brandt so I could present myself for the filming. I phoned Auerswald who told me: I forbid you to appear. Kehilla at 7:30. Maybe, still and all, something will change. The matter was, obviously, not settled. Will I have the strength to maintain myself on a level of honor? Toward evening I see flowers being carted from the cemetery on a hearse, for the dance.
* SS Hauptsturmfuhrer Franz Avril

But these were the bigger scenes. It would take an idiot not to spot how they are purposely contrasted. The allegedly trivial scenes of people in the streets were the real work. Two fur coated ladies arriving at the staged ball snobbishly pay the dirty rickshaw driver and proceed to walk straight across a beggar girl dressed in rags without so much as noticing her (as blind to her as they are to the German cameraman in uniform standing right in front of them).
Witnesses report how decently clothed individuals were instructed to purposefully ignore the outreached hands of beggars and walk across cadavers in the street without even gracing them with a glance. The result was sometimes ridiculous, since the filmmakers used random people and not actors for the most part. One scene shows a nervous looking elderly lady making the most amazing u-turn around a cadaver while her eyes are firmly fixed on the horizon.

Image

As outtakes show, even a supposedly trivial scene of two beggar boys lingering next to a meat shop window was filmed in four different takes, with the boys and an alleged costumer walking up to the shop time and again for the cameramen.
Even the scenes at the market were staged. Witnesses give account how geese were brought into the ghetto for the filming, to make the marker appear plentiful, and how the meat on the counters was in fact horse.

Image

Another short sequence shows a close up of different "couples" - beggar and "Bourgeois". I imagine this would wither be used as an opening or closing scene for the movie. And finally, another short sequence was dedicated to demonizing Judaism, showing some bizarre religious ceremonies – a circumcision, a mikveh, kosher butchering and studying torah. I'm not gonna go into either.

V/12/1942 Czerniakow’s diary
Avril appeared with the cameramen and demanded to film a scene in the ritual bath on Dzielna Street. For this purpose 20 pious men with side locks were needed as well as 20 women of good family. There is also a circumcision scene. Dr. Milejkowski * was ordered to arrange it. The candidate, unfortunately, weighs only 2 kg. There is reason to worry that he will not live that long.
* Israel Milejkowski, head of the public-health department of the Judenrat

V/13/1942 Czerniakow’s diary
Yesterday they took pictures in the ritual bath. The women they brought had to be replaced, because one of them refused to undress. They demanded that the circumcision not take place in a clinic, but in a private home. I questioned B.* and the Commissioner about the subjects being about the subjects being filmed. I asked why no pictures were taken of the school, etc.
* SS Obersturmfuhrer Karl Georg Brandt

This hardly scratched the surface, but I can't bothered to write more at the moment. I highly recommend you watch the documentary. Being a large part of very little video footage from the ghetto in existence, one can't help but wonder how many people have been exposed to this movie's indoctrination through postwar documentaries.
Sorry for any spelling mistakes. I tend to make them when I get tired.

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Re: Warsaw ghetto photos

#144

Post by wm » 16 Oct 2014, 15:53

it was not only the funeral processions that made the cemetery so strangely lively, but the constant presence of hundreds of German soldiers. They gleefully photographed the dead and the accompanying relatives, and even went as far as taking snapshots of the corpses as they were laid out in the mortuary.
Taking pictures was forbidden in the Warsaw Ghetto, even for Germans, so that statement is rather suspicious. For example Heinrich Joest was reprimanded for that, and a roll of film was confiscated from him.

I think it should be mentioned nobody was indoctrinated by Das Ghetto because the documentary was never finished. Its propaganda message, even its true title are unknown. It 's just a few reels of footage without soundtrack.
Some say the project was abandon because the filmed material was too ambiguous, not compelling enough.
An anti-Semitic film, showing among others the life in the Eastern Ghettos during the WW2 - The Eternal Jew (Der Ewige Jude), had been made already, and was widely distributed. Professionally made, it was an effective and powerful propaganda tool.

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Re: Warsaw ghetto photos

#145

Post by PF » 01 Dec 2014, 16:52

Note in regard to Warsaw Ghetto Picture at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Ghe ... ng_06b.jpg

Reportably Taken at Kupiecka Street near Nalweki Street
Ref at http://www.deathcamps.org/occupation/gunpoint.html

Related link on Stroop reoport pictures taken on just one street pictures at http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... s#p1329499

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Re: Warsaw ghetto photos

#146

Post by PF » 12 Apr 2015, 03:12

and Befehlstelle Stands For?

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Re: Warsaw ghetto photos

#147

Post by 4thskorpion » 12 Apr 2015, 09:19

wm wrote:
it was not only the funeral processions that made the cemetery so strangely lively, but the constant presence of hundreds of German soldiers. They gleefully photographed the dead and the accompanying relatives, and even went as far as taking snapshots of the corpses as they were laid out in the mortuary.
Taking pictures was forbidden in the Warsaw Ghetto, even for Germans, so that statement is rather suspicious. For example Heinrich Joest was reprimanded for that, and a roll of film was confiscated from him.
And yet despite photography being forbidden I have several hundred original photo prints taken by numerous German soldier "tourists" on the streets of the Warsaw ghetto, some obviously taken whilst on foot and others taken from open-top automobiles touring the ghetto streets:
warszawa_getto-1.jpg
Warsaw_Ghetto-2.jpg

Sykderick wrote: ".. one can't help but wonder how many people have been exposed to this movie's indoctrination through postwar documentaries. " Therefore not referring to indoctrination during the time that the Das Ghetto footage was originally shot.

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Re: Warsaw ghetto photos

#148

Post by wm » 23 Apr 2015, 21:36

Das Ghetto is just a bunch of random silent scenes from the Ghetto, there is nothing evil about them, that was the job for the commentary. So no indoctrination was possible unless a suitable indoctrination commentary was added and used after war.

There were many tourists there but the German police was seen exceedingly rarely. So a soldier had to be very unlucky to be spotted and his roll of film confiscated - Heinrich Joest's luck ran out on that day.

But a large public gathering, "the constant presence of hundreds of German soldiers" certainly would require attention of the Security Police - some policemen would be there - so I doubt gleeful photographing would be so easy.

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Re: Warsaw ghetto photos

#149

Post by 4thskorpion » 24 Apr 2015, 10:21

I don't think the author was referring to constant crowds of several hundreds of German soldiers at one time...like a coach trip...but to a constant stream of tourist soldiers to be seen in the ghetto environs. This constant stream is borne out by the myriad of "ghetto tourist photos" found in German soldiers' photo albums as mementoes of their time stationed or visiting Warszawa.

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Warsaw Ghetto Picture 1940

#150

Post by PF » 28 May 2015, 14:10


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