DHHRM – Auschwitz Through the Lens of the SS

Shortly after World War II, an American intelligence officer in Germany uncovered a personal album of photographs chronicling SS officer activities at Auschwitz-Birkenau. A chilling visual record from the Holocaust, the album was hidden in a garage for 70 years and then donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Historian Rebecca Erbelding, Ph.D., joins us to explore the photo album, which she determines was compiled by Karl Höcker, the adjutant to the Camp Commandant of Auschwitz. Containing rare images of SS officers at leisure, even as atrocities unfolded nearby, the album offers a disturbing glimpse into the personal lives of perpetrators. Erbelding will share the album’s historical context, significance, and the complex ethical questions it raises about memory and complicity.