Selection of Hungarian Jews at the Auschwitz-Birkenau killing center. Poland, May 1944.
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Photograph of Yisrael and Zelig Jacob on the ramp at the Auschwitz-Birkenau killing center in May 1944. The Nazis murdered the brothers in a gas chamber shortly after this photo was taken.
Yisrael and Zelig were two of the approximately 430,000 Jews that Nazi German authorities and their Hungarian collaborators deported to Auschwitz from Hungary in 1944. This photograph is one of many taken on May 26, 1944. That day, SS photographers documented the arrival, selection, and registration of transports of Jews at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Some of the photographs taken that day were collected in an album. Its original purpose, creator, and owner are unknown. After the war, the album was found by Holocaust survivor, Lili Jacob. It is commonly called the "Lili Jacob Album" or the "Auschwitz Album." Upon looking through the album, Lili Jacob recognized herself, her younger brothers Yisrael and Zelig, other family members, and members of her community in some of the photographs.
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SS female auxiliaries getting off the bus on a day trip in July 1944; this image contrasts starkly with the arrival of a deported Hungarian men, women, and children in Auschwitz-Birkenau in May 1944.
From Karl Höcker's photograph album, which includes both documentation of official visits and ceremonies at Auschwitz as well as more personal photographs depicting the many social activities that he and other members of the Auschwitz camp staff enjoyed. These rare images show Nazis singing, hunting, and even trimming a Christmas tree. They provide a chilling contrast to the photographs of thousands of Hungarian Jews deported to Auschwitz at the same time.
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A photograph of Jewish women and children who have just arrived at the Auschwitz-Birkenau killing center in 1944. They have been separated from the men and teenaged boys who arrived with them and are lined up in an area of Birkenau known as "the ramp" before undergoing the selection process. The Nazis murdered most of the women and children pictured here in the gas chambers. An Auschwitz prisoner wearing a striped camp uniform is visible on the right side of the image. He was mostly likely part of a work detail responsible for facilitating the arrival of deportation transports at Auschwitz.
The people in this photo are some of the approximately 430,000 Jews that Nazi German authorities and their Hungarian collaborators deported to Auschwitz from Hungary in 1944. This photograph is one of many taken in late spring/summer 1944 as SS photographers documented the arrival, selection, and registration of transports of Jews at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Some of the photographs taken that day were collected in an album. Its original purpose, creator, and owner are unknown. After the war, the album was found by Holocaust survivor, Lili Jacob. It is commonly called the "Lili Jacob Album" or the "Auschwitz Album."
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