Rare Documentation From Nazi Soldiers' Albums Revealed

At first glance, these photos appear like a regular sequence of images found in old albums from those years. Children smiling and waving at the camera, unfamiliar streets in black and white, remote towns forgotten over time. Even the album owners appear here and there in some photos, posing as tourists with smiles on their faces. They gather for group photos next to old buildings. Seemingly, these pictures could be found in any personal photo album taken in the 1940s, but the faded writing on the back exposes the time and place they were taken, and the result is chilling.

The funeral of a Jewish child - Unknown place, the child's family organized and took their son for burial. This picture is from 1941.

Decades after Nazi Wehrmacht soldiers documented their service during World War II, these images are now being revealed to the public, showing the daily life of Jews during the Holocaust. Among others, you can see smiling children feeling secure with the soldiers, Jews engaged in forced labor, and sometimes burning synagogues and houses. Some pictures still hold the original captions written by the soldiers. In other cases, research is needed to understand what they actually depict. Some soldiers repeatedly documented the same people over time, allowing us to learn considerably about the daily lives of the Jews in the photos. Others captured only brief moments of the people and stories they encountered. In some photos, Jews do not seem afraid of the soldiers, while in others, expressions of fear, embarrassment, and humiliation are evident. According to Rabbi Avraham Krieger, founder of the "Shem Olam" Institute for Holocaust Documentation and Studies, tens of thousands of photos from personal albums of Nazi Wehrmacht soldiers have been located and archived after intensive efforts.

Photograph from a car of Jews - The soldier sits in a vehicle passing through a Jewish village, curious and photographing the Jews passing by.

"Six years ago, photographs began arriving from the albums of Wehrmacht soldiers who documented the time they served in the army," he recounts. "What is special about these photos is that unlike those taken by SS soldiers who were responsible for concentrating Jews in ghettos and deporting them to extermination camps, these were taken by soldiers without direct involvement with Jews. In these albums, the images of Jews during the Holocaust were captured by soldiers' personal cameras, as chilling as it is, documenting their experiences similarly to tourist photos taken during the war."

Forced labor in Krakow - The same people are seen with German soldiers supervising the forced labor.

Among the institute's collection are posed photographs. In some, it is evident that the soldiers intentionally sought Jews who were hunched over, disabled, or pitiful in appearance to document, serving as proof for the Nazi racial theories. In some photos, Jews are seen during forced labor, with captions like "Finally, even the Jews are working" and other antisemitic expressions written behind them. A significant portion of the photos documents several stages of Jewish abuse, the burning of synagogues, with intact buildings initially, and later images showing destruction and ruin.

These photos "draw" the viewer into the Nazi soldier's perspective, offering a shocking glimpse through their eyes. In some pictures, the German soldiers added antisemitic remarks in their handwriting as a "souvenir," such as 'Jewish criminals', 'Jews at work', 'Explosion of synagogues', and the lowest: 'Dead Jews'.

Ancient ghetto gate in Lublin - A photo taken in 1939-40 by a soldier capturing the ancient Jewish ghetto gate in Lublin.

The method by which these photos reached the "Shem Olam" Institute is intriguing. Rabbi Krieger explains that as part of the institute's work as a research entity focusing on the Holocaust's spiritual and faith aspects, as well as documenting and studying daily life during the Holocaust, they established extensive archives documenting Jewish life during the Holocaust through photos and documents. Among the institute's researchers are numerous local researchers from European countries tasked with locating Holocaust-related materials in private and public archives.

On the steps of the Lublin Yeshiva, a German soldier photographing a Gypsy music group playing for passersby outside the ghetto.

"Six years ago," he recounts, "photos began arriving from private albums of soldiers who served during those years in Poland, Lithuania, and more. Most photos came from descendants of those soldiers, the third generation after the war, who found the images in private family albums of older relatives. Usually, the photos arrived indirectly through a third party, as the families themselves did not want to be exposed. They didn't want to keep the albums documenting the atrocities, but they also couldn't throw them away and sought to hand the photos over to other hands. Thus, the pictures ended up in our possession through unconventional means. Some families sent only a few photos, while others sent entire albums. Through human eyes, it is hard to understand how a person documents themselves enjoying nature while alongside those photos appear harsh images of humiliation and abuse."

Burning of the synagogue in the Chassidic town of Kock - In a photo from 1941, the Jewish synagogue is seen engulfed in flames.

Most fascinating, according to Rabbi Krieger, is that the majority of the photos primarily document small towns from which no other images survived. "While we have many photos from large cities like Warsaw and Lodz, some even taken by Jews," he explains, "in those remote towns, this is the only existing documentation. In most cases, no survivor remained from most of these towns, and the photos we have are the only commemoration of their memory."

Germans interacting with Jewish children, ordering them to salute with a Sieg Heil in the ghetto.

Meanwhile, he mentions attempts to identify the individuals in the photos haven't succeeded. "There were holocaust survivors able to recognize the documented locations, shedding some light on the towns and places photographed, but the fate and identities of most individuals remain shrouded in mystery."

A recuperation facility for German soldiers - The Germans brought Jews to clean their vehicles and perform other service tasks (roles meant for the humiliation and suppression of Jews).

German soldier photographed with a Jew - Occasionally, German soldiers encountered Jews whose appearance matched Nazi propaganda. When encountering colorful characters, they quickly posed with them to show the Aryan race beside the inferior race.

German soldiers vandalizing a cemetery in the Rzeszow area.

Picture from the Warsaw Ghetto - In such cases, we assume it's a staged photograph. It's likely the German soldiers found a synagogue and ordered the Jews to pose.