The Only Photos Ever Taken Inside a Nazi Death Camp

The Sonderkommandos — Gone but Never Forgotten.

World War II is considered by far as the incident that single-handedly changed how modern history was going to unfold after its end in 1945. From the advancements in aerial war machines to the creation of the deadliest weapon in humanity’s history, the atomic bomb, there was one thing that was certain in this great war: despair and destruction.

Perhaps the saddest part about it was the mass genocide of the Jews committed by the Nazi regime under Adolf Hitler. The Holocaust would see millions of Jews killed, tortured, and dislocated in concentration camps explicitly made to keep them captive so the world could be rid of this “inferior race”.

The Horrors of Auschwitz.

The most infamous — and worst — concentration camp was known as Auschwitz. This was a specifically designed complex of over 40 camps where the SS soldiers (Nazi soldiers) would exterminate thousands of Jewish prisoners every day. The Auschwitz camp itself is most famous for the gas chambers that it had. These gas chambers were the primary method in which the Jews were killed. They would be ordered into a room being told that it was time for a shower.

Little did they know that instead of running hot water, they would be showered with poisonous gases that would kill them slowly and painfully in the confines of walls where no one could hear their screams for help. It is said that over 1.1 million Jews were killed over the course of Auschwitz’s operation; there were 1.3 million Jews that were sent in total.

Alex — The Greek Hero Who Unmasked the Truth.

In August of 1944, a brave man known as Alex took four photographs of the Auschwitz concentration camp when it was fully in operation. These photos were taken in the second camp of Auschwitz, known as Auschwitz II-Birkenau. Birkenau was home to most of the gas chambers, and this was the part of the compound where prisoners would be brought in to be killed.

Many people have speculated that Alex was actually Alberto Errera, who was a Greek naval soldier fighting in the War. Since the camps were always swarming with guards, there was little opportunity to capture the photographs. If he was seen taking the pictures, it would surely be the end of him.

So, How Did He Do It?

Testimonies of people who were with Alex or Alberto suggest that the pictures were taken in a span of just 15 to 30 minutes. This is because they had very little time at hand as they were risking their lives. Alberto was assisted by four other men who would look out for guards while he would angle the camera from his hip to capture the photographs. Amidst the fear of losing their lives while also being short on time, the pictures came out blurry. Some were not even of the intended subjects, yet it allowed the world an inside view of the horrors of Auschwitz.

Photograph 280, 281, 282, 283.

The photos were numbered 280–283 by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum after they were smuggled out of the concentration camp in an empty toothpaste tube by someone who was in charge of the canteen at Auschwitz.

Photographs 280 and 281 depicted a morbid scene of piles of bodies racked on top of each other being burnt by specially appointed individuals who were in charge of getting rid of the corpses after they had died in the gas chambers. What is even more disturbing is that the people appointed for cremating the bodies were other Jewish prisoners; it was as if they were asking to ethnically cleanse their own race.

Photograph 282 showed naked women waiting to enter the shower at Auschwitz camp II. This shower, however, was actually the gas chamber where they were going to be poisoned to death. In reality, thus, this photograph captures the lives of these women moments before they would be sent to their demise.

The last photograph, 283, shows random tree branches. This was because the crew trying to photograph the scene could not handle the camera while also trying to stay hidden from the SS soldiers. Hence, they accidentally captured tree branches rather than what they originally intended on capturing.

After the Sonderkommando photographs were released, it became clear to the entire world that the Nazis were not qualified to be called human beings. To this day, it is horrifying to think that over 1 million Jews sent to Auschwitz alone suffered the same fate as those few hundred people captured by Alberto on that fateful day.

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