Auschwitz burning pit picture

[Hans]

I'm looking for a scan of the second and less known "burning pit photograph" taken by the Sonderkommando in summer 1944 from crematorium 5 in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Not a close up but the full picture showing the entire frame of the door in normal size. Note that I don't mean this photo of the scene, but the other one.

This is a tiny scan of this picture and I need exactly this only in larger size. If it violates against the Atrocity Photographs Policy, let me now, David, I'll delete it then.

[Hans]

PS: Don't try google, you'll waste your time! 8)

[David Thompson]

Hans -- let me see if I can find a copy for you. Because the photographs have independent historical value, because the authenticity of these photographs has been questioned, because it is impossible to discuss the authenticity of the photographs without looking at them, because the photograph in question is apparently not available even with a google internet search, and because you were courteous enough to ask first, I think the photo should be accessible.

[David Thompson]

To make sure that you get the photo you wanted, here are both, taken from Pressac, Jean-Claude, "Auschwitz: Technique and Operation of the Gas Chambers," Beate Klarsfeld Foundation, New York: 1989, p. 422:

[Hans]

Excellent, David!

A big thank you!

[Hans]

Here's Pressac's comment on the pictures posted in alt.revisionism:

Presented in 1945 as the only photographs of the extermination of the
Jews, taken in August 1944, they were attributed by Judge Jan Sehn in the
initial publications of the Central Commission for the investigation of
Hitlerian crimes in Poland and the Auschwitz Museum to the former prisoner
David Szmulewski.
Four photographs were taken with a camera smuggled into Krematorium V. Two
were of reasobale quality (Photos 15 and 16 [PMO neg. nos 280 and 281]),
one just about usable (Ohoto 17 [PMO neg no. 282]) and the last one
useless (Photo 18 [PMO neg. no. 283]). The clandestine photographer had
taken two pictures of corpses being burnt in the open air [Photos 15 and
16], one of naked women [Photo 17], and one of tree branches (Photo 18).
As a rule, the three usuable photographs are not published complete, but
just the <<interesting>> part is enlarged and printed with a general
caption:

Photo 15 and 16: <<Cremation of gassed bodies in open ditches>> [PMO
enlargements: neg nos 277 and 278];

Photo 17: <<Prisoners being led to the gas chamber>> [PMO enlargement: neg
no. 279];

The first two photographs (Photo 15 and 16) were never retouched, unlike
the third (Photo 17), three different versions of which are known to the
author:

1. The origional [PMO neg. no. 282 and its enlargement, neg. no. 279];

2. First retouched version (minor retouches only; reference not known);

3. Second retouched version, the <<exibition photograph>> hung on the
first floor of Block 4 (<<Extrerminatin>>), opposite the cutaway plaster
midel of Krematorium II (Photo 17a [PMO neg. no. 282a]).

The major changed made to Photo 17 are to be found on Photo 17a:

- The attribution of faces to the three naked women, whereas they are
totally indistinguishable on the origional, each of the three bodies
recieved a distinct face, with the lighting matching that of the rest of
the picture;

- Transformation of their bodies, those of OLD women (thus unfit for work
and destined for gassing and cremation) into those of YOUNG women (thus
fit for work, so they should not be there, an embarrassing contradiction
which escaped the <<retoucher>>), their breasts, fallen on the origional,
being lifted and redrawn.
What is more, contrary to popular belief, the women are not <<running
towards the gas chambers>>, but are waiting to enter them. The two on the
left are taking a few steps and the one on the right is walking normally.
The location of the scene makes it possible to state that the western
partof Krematorium V, containg the gas chambers, is BEHIND them, not in
front.

[...]

Having the origional photographs makes it possible to identify and
precisely locate the scenes and the position of the photographer. Photos
15 and 16 were taken from the inside of a building, through an open door.
The only Birkenau Krematorium possessing the three elements to be found on
the two photos, a door giving onto a barbed wire fence with the birch wood
in the background, was Krematorium V. In the western section there the
door of the western gas chamber meeting these conditions and two doors in
the north side, that of the northern gas chamber and the double door of
the furnace room. A beam, the end of which is visible on the photos,
supported the porch roos over these doors (not shown on drawing 2036, but
visible on PMO neg. no. 20995/509). The porch roof outside the furnace
room was about a metre higher than the door and was not visible from the
interior, but those of the gas chambers, where the roof of the building
was lower, were only just above the doors and could be seen from the
interior. The line of the crown of trees inthe Birch Wood diminish from
left to right, while it would have been horizontal had the picture been
taken from the west end of the building. This clue together with the
orientation of the shadows indicates that the pictures were taken looking
northwest, the photographer being in the northern gas chamber of
Krematorium V [see sketch map]. The wind, normally from the niort, was
blowing from the west, or more likely, northwest.
As regards Photo 17, possession of the origional is essential. It shows
that women are concentrated in the bottom left corner, while on the right
it is possible to see the top of a Krematorium chimney which does not have
the shape of those of Krematorien II and III, but those of Krematorien IV
and V. The scene cannot have been located at Krematorium IV, with no trees
in the immediate vicinity. Krematorium V was surrounded by birch trees.
The photo was taken against the light, the south being in front of the
photographer and the north behind him, with one of the two chimneys of a
type IV/V Krematorium visible on the right. Given this orientation and
these clues, the scene could be nowhere other than at the eastern end of
an area between the south wall of Krematorium V and the line of trees
bordering the Ringstrasse. The photographer was to the east of Krematorium
V and the naked women were moving with their backs to the gas chambers in
its western part. They were not running, but walking, awaiting their
<<turn>>.
The chimney of Krematorium V, as we might expect, is not smoking. We know
from David Szmulewski that the four pictures were taken virtually one
after the other, with only about fifteen minutes between the first and the
last. One of the open-air cremation ditches was therefore operating quite
close to the north side of Krematorium V whilke its furnace was not
working, so that contrary to the testimony of Sonderkommando men, the
ditches were not in addition to the furnace but were dug to replace it, as
it was out of service.
The author, having determined the location of the three photographs and of
the Sonderkopmmando man who took them, had a conversation with Mr. David
Szmulewski at the end of 1987, and established just ghow the episode took
place:

In the summer of 1944, the Sonderkommando men asked the camp resistance
for a small camera so that they could record the criminal tasks they were
forced to carry out: emptying the gas chambers and incineration of the
bodies. The Sonderkommando organized some damage to the roof of the gas
chambers of Krematorium V and requested repairs. The internal camp
resistance came into action. A <<flying squad>> to which Szmulewski, a
member of this organization, belonged came to repair the damage.
Szmulewski was carrying a dixie can with a false bottom in which the
camera was hidden. Once the prisoner-repairman were on the roof,
Szmulewski pased the camera to a Sonderkommando man working at the
cremation ditch who had placed himself against the north wall of the gas
chambers, under the roof overhang which was 2.45 from the ground. This
prisner then quickly entered the north gas chamber whose door was open for
ventilation purposes. There he was safe, as the room had already been
emptied of corpses. From the centre of this room he took photographs of his
comrades feeding bodies into the cremation ditch. Then, hiding the camera
in his right hand, he emerged from the building and went along the north
wall to the estern end of the building then about 30 metres into the wood,
moving parallel to the eastern end of the building, under the cover of
trees. In front of the Krematorium, to the south, a group of women
considered unfit to work, the next <<batch>>, was undressing. Some of them
were already naked, a little way from the others, taking a few steps while
waiting. The sun was shining right into his face, through the trees lining
the Ringstrasse, so there could be no question of using the camera
normally, using the viewfinder as he had done in the gas chamber. From
rather far away, so as not to be noticed, he took the first picture of the
women by guesswork, holding his right arm against his side withthe camera
in his palm. Hidden behind a tree, he wound the film, emerged and took
another picture in the same way as before. The direction the lens was
pointing in was difficult to judge under these conditions and he pointed
the camera too high, photographing the tops of the three instead of the
women [Photo 18]. Retracing his steps,he returned to the comparitive
safety of the Krematorium, moving along the north wall to the gas
chambers. Szmulewski was watching out for him. A quick look around, no SS.
The Sonderkommando held up the camera which rapidly changed hands again
[see the photograph showing the assumed path of the photographer].
Szmulewski replaced the camera in the bottom of the dixie, the repair was
completed and the flying squad departed. The whole process had taken only
fifteen to thirty minutes. The photos were taken out of the camp and
handed over to the Polish resistance in Cracow.
After the Liberation, the prisoner who took the photographs did not come
forward, proabably having been liquidated after the Sonderkommando revolt
on 7th October 1944, so David Szmulewski became the sole survivor of theis
operation. The homor came to him and he was declared the author of the
photographs, though honestly enough he always stated that he had been on
the roof of Krematorium V throughout the whole episode. His friendship
withJudge Jan Sehn probably counted much for this designation. After the
war, David Szmulewski remained in Poland and was employed in an important
post, but in 1968, one of the periodic waves of anti-Semitism swept
through the Polish government and he lost his job because he was a Jew. He
emigrated to France and has lived there ever since.

Jean-Claude Pressac, Technique and Operation of the Auschwitz gas chambers, page 422-424.

[David Thompson]

Hans -- On behalf of our readers and myself, thanks a lot!

[Hans]

And the related secret message of the underground, according to Czech's Kalendarium dated September 4, 1944:

We are sending you photos of a gassing operation in Birkenau. One photo shows an outdoor pyre on which corpses are burned because the crematorium cannot keep up. In front of the pyre lie corpses to be added to the pile.

The other picture shows one of the sites in the woods where people undress, supposedly for the baths, before they go to the gas.

Urgent: send us two rolls of film for a 6 X 9 camera as quickly as possible. It is possible to take more photos.

http://www.ghwk.de/engl/catalog/cateng10a.htm

[caged lion]

Sorry to dig up old threads, but I thought it relevant to add a comment to this existing one that wouldn’t warrant a new topic started.

I have been travelling Poland for over a year trying to replicate old pictures (now and then type shots)

This is one I am starting with. Excuse the rudimentary photoshop skills for now, but maybe you find this kind of project of interest.

I am pretty sure I was standing in the same spot as The Greek Jew, Alex was in when he captured the shot. I reluctantly had to stand in the gas chamber to get the best angle I could.

I chose to crop the image to the cropped more popular version as my camera lens could not match the original.

[pacifritz]

Looks like a credible match to me, Caged Lion; many thanks for sharing your observations.

All this time, I thought this notorious picture showed events on concrete, inside the camp compound.

[caged lion]

Thanks for your response

I am still trying to guage what this forum needs in terms of input, questions aside.

Well, I have my own questions regards the subject of WW2 and I research mine via books, forums, and this one on many occasions, but one feels he would like to contribute too, and I would like to think I can in any small way via my findings in 2010/2011.

[PF]

the 3 pictures can be seen at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonderkommando Under heading "Gallery"

[bolt24]

Looks like a credible match to me, Caged Lion; many thanks for sharing your observations.

All this time, I thought this notorious picture showed events on concrete, inside the camp compound.

I did something similar some years ago:

[pacifritz]

More excellent observations, bolt, which helps to place the scene of these acts very clearly.

Clearly the reconnisance 'plane crew had no idea of what was being perpetrated below.

The difference in the height of the trees since the early 40s also looks natural.


How do you line up a shot like this in modern times---is it simply a case of holding up a copy of a b/w photo on the Auschwitz site, next to a tripod and camera? It's all I can imagine .