A sing-along during a social gathering of the SS hierarchy at the Solahütte, an SS retreat at Międzybrodzkie Lake on the Soła River near Auschwitz.
Standing in front of the railing and facing the musician (from left to right): Karl Höcker, Rudolf Höss, Richard Baer, Franz Hössler, Josef Mengele, Anton Thumann, and Walter Schmidetzki. In the second row, Otto Moll is between Höcker and Höss; Josef Kramer is between Baer and Hössler. The man in the white jacket between Thumann and Schmidetzki has not been identified. Most of the men in this photograph 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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