Poland Women naked, before their execution
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Poland Women naked, before their execution
Among the millions of photographs that are related to Nazi death camps, only four depict the actual process of mass killing perpetrated at the gas chambers in Auschwitz-Birkenau.
They show a completely different perspective, which makes them unique when dealing with visual material of the Holocaust and the Holocaust as a topic itself. They were taken inside the epicenter of the horror, from which no other visual material exists.
They were taken clandestinely at the height of the Final Solution in 1944 by one of the so-called Sonderkommando – Jewish prisoners forced to help carry out the atrocities by removing the Nazis' victims from the gas chambers and destroying the corpses through fire or mass burial. One of the photographs shows a group of naked women; the others show the cremation of corpses.
element: showing the victims themselves. The decision to crop the photos was apparently made in 1944 by the original Polish photographer who was working with “Tell”, the underground operative to whom the photos were sent; the original, uncropped versions did not surface until 1985.4 Even today, the photographs are usually displayed in their cropped forms and not in their original forms. They also restructure the image so that the figures appear more “natural”, standing straight up.
Two of the original photographs (those of the Sonderkommando cremating corpses), however, are surrounded by a black frame and the photograph of the naked women, shows mostly the trees and the surroundings; only when you take a close look at the photo can you see the naked women in the lower left-hand corner.
Poland Women naked, before their execution
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Three of the original, uncropped versions can be seen here (the photo of the trees described above is not contained in this gallery).
By cropping out the original blackness at the edges of the images the photos are dislocated from their original perspective and delete information about the photographer. The uncropped version shows us the position of the photographers as well as the conditions under which they took the pictures. It shows us the fact that they had to hide in the crematorium building and had to hastily shoot the images through a doorway or a window, which contributed to their blurriness and distorted angles. Reframing and changing the picture cuts out all of these details and makes us believe that the photographer was able to walk around in the open air and freely take photographs of what was happening outside.
The black frame that doesn’t show very much is as valuable as the other parts of the picture. Pictures don’t exist by themselves, but in the context of the act that made them possible. The black frame represents the room, the dark chamber in which the person had to step back to take the picture. It represents the situation of the shot itself, the place that made its existence possible. The removal of the dark zone in order to get “clear” information makes believe that the picture was taken calmly, and thus mocks the danger and the resistance. By cutting out the frame, the phenomenology is blocked out and with it everything that makes this photograph an event (the process, the work, the danger and the placement).
Using the images as they were made, in a series, offers the possibility of montage of history in order to gain a better understanding of the events. These pictures, and photographs in general, need to be understood as fragmented moments of an event, not as an image of the whole Holocaust. They are impressions of the reality as well as their own interpretation. They are great tools of expression, visual testimony and proof. They play an important role in the collective process of commemoration and remembrance.
The importance of the Sonderkommando photographs is in what they depict – they are an extract of the actual extermination of Jews – and in the actual act of taking the pictures – in comparison to other Auschwitz photographs, these actually show the danger and the resistance in the act of taking a photograph. They were ripped out of the reality to prove something that nobody believed could be true. They address the unimaginable and prove the unimaginable to be real at the same time. To read about the atrocities makes them sometimes hard to believe, but the four pictures are proof of the secret, the lie and the strategy: to stigmatize Auschwitz as something unimaginable and therefore untrue by destroying all traces, all human morals, destroying the weapons of extermination themselves – the gas chambers – and by destroying the memory of the extermination.
These four photographs are of immense importance because they prove that the unimaginable is imaginable: nobody can deny the existence of the pictures. The photographs are only one moment of the “truth”, but they are invaluable, since they are all we have regarding the extermination.
Some critics have argued that these partially-comprehensible images depicting only a small part of the destruction process would come to be seen as representative of the entire Holocaust, thus reducing the scale and extension of the horror to a few randomly-captured moments. It has been also said that since there is no single image which can depict the entire Holocaust in its diversity, it is preferable to not show actual images of the genocide.5
George Didi-Huberman, who analyses the four Sonderkommando photographs, insists on the necessity of viewing these images, which had been created “in spite of all” and survived “in spite of all”. He explains that: “[t]hey are infinitely precious to us today. They are demanding too, for they require archeological work. We must dig again in their ever so fragile temporality.”6
Didi-Huberman adds a significant dimension to the ethics of historical memory: mere viewing is insufficient. It is not enough to look at the exhibit, in order to “never forget”.
The photographs are tiny details of a complex reality, a short moment – but they become the “truth” themselves – the reality of Auschwitz that stays visual for us. The purpose of the pictures was to show the reality of Auschwitz and to make it accessible for the rest of the world. A picture can begin where all words stop and categories fail.
The function of Auschwitz was to deny the humanity of its victims and to destroy their lives and any documents of their existence. To oppose the destruction of all pictures and to take a picture despite everything means in this context an act of resistance – to keep a picture for the rest of the world, to resist actively, to acknowledge the others and to maintain one’s own humanity. Therefore it is necessary to understand the pictures. They are lacking information but they confront us with the act of temporary survivors as well as the tragedy of the Sonderkommando.
The Sonderkommando photographs are proof of the crime and proof of the trust of the Sonderkommando members in visual evidence and resistance.
Conclusion
Photographs are so powerful because they seem utterly real. They seem to represent reality without any mediation. We believe that they come directly to us without any manipulation. However, the Sonderkommando photographs prove that we must be much more critical when viewing photographs – we must remember to ask the important questions. Only then will we be able to truly understand the reality they depict.