This photograph shows a group of SS officers at the Solahütte, an SS retreat at Międzybrodzkie Lake on the Soła River near Auschwitz. Pictured from left to right: Josef Kramer, Dr. Josef Mengele, Richard Baer, Karl Höcker, and Walter Schmidetzki. All five men held leadership positions within the Auschwitz camp complex. They were intimately involved in the mass murder of Jews.
This photo is from an album that belonged to SS officer Karl Höcker. The Höcker Album includes 116 pictures taken in and around Auschwitz between May 1944 and January 1945. This photo was taken on July 15, 1944, at an event honoring Höss, who at the time was preparing to leave Auschwitz for another assignment.
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