Researching the darkest days of WWII
Rebecca Erbelding
Researcher, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
I work with new and incoming collections at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Most people react to this with surprise-"The Holocaust ended more than sixty years ago--is there really anything left to collect?" Absolutely. We are continually adding new collections--an average of 400 a year, ranging from microfilm to documents to personal items--and are actively seeking new material that can enhance our knowledge of the Holocaust. This is a critical time. Holocaust denial is on the rise and the eyewitness generation is disappearing. These collections will act as the voices of the survivors, liberators, and witnesses when they are no longer with us.
In December 2006, I received a letter. I get lots of letters and emails and phone calls from people who have material they would like to show us. My colleagues and I respond to everyone who contacts us--we are able to tell the donor whether we would be interested in a particular collection, provide them with information, or can help them find a more suitable museum if their items lie outside of our scope. I responded, and within weeks Karl Hoecker's photo album of his experiences at Auschwitz from May 1944 to January 1945 arrived at the Holocaust Museum.
We now have photographic evidence of the life of SS officers at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Especially chilling is that these photographs were taken during the final months of the camp's operation when the staggeringly massive Hungarian deportations (437,000 Hungarian Jews arrived at the camp in a span of 55 days, about 80% of whom were murdered upon arrival) were arriving. I had no idea that anything like this existed. It makes me wonder what else is out there. What do people have in their attics, in their garages, stuffed in file cabinets and forgotten? Are there more Auschwitz albums?
Karl Hoecker's album was almost lost to history. Our donor (who found the album after the war and requested anonymity) passed away a few months after donating the photographs. If he had not contacted us when he did, the album might have gotten thrown away, unnoticed in a pile and lost forever. But it wasn't. One of the many things I hope people think about after watching "Nazi Scrapbooks from Hell" is that items they have in their homes might have value. Museums help preserve and protect collections from deterioration and most importantly, can make these collections available to those wanting to learn more about the past. Thanks to our anonymous donor, Karl Hoecker's photograph album, and with it the only known photographs of Josef Mengele (and other infamous SS officers) while at the camp and the last known images of wartime Auschwitz, were saved. But I still wonder what else is out there, and I always love getting my mail every day.
Click here to learn more about Karl Hoecker's photograph album
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25 Comments
I just finished watching most of this excellent show. It was very enlightening to many aspects of the human condition. I do question though the attempts to identify Karl Hoecker from a series of photographs at the end of the program. The man on the ramp with his back to the camera appears to be wearing a non-commissioned officer uniform, as the collar and epaulets have a trese, or trim all around its edge. Hoeker was an officer and his uniform was not so adorned.
K Gott beat me to it. The man on the ramp was an NCO and Hoeker an officer. It's unlikely they are the same man.
Backing up K Gott and RSK. The man on the ramp was definately an NCO, not an officer. It doesn't change a thing about Hoecker. He was a willing executioner who got away with countless murders.
An interesting show with a stupid name. Why are we so concerned with trying to identify people from that time? It will not bring anyone back from the dead and it is a little late for closure. I would also love to see a show that mentions that a lot of people besides Jews were killed in the camps. If we are to put a focused lens on history then by all means let us be accurate about it.
Thanks for the back-up, guys. Now I can let fly, so to speak.
The inability of the show's historians to see that plain evidence or their choosing to ignore it is inexcusable. Perhaps the allure of finally documenting Hoecker at the ramp or sensationalizing the program for ratings was just too great and judgment was clouded. The show lost a few points of credibility with me.
In the program it was mentioned that Hoecker retired as head cashier of a bank. Has anyone considered that this job placed him in a perfect position to cover the movement or transfer of funds for other Nazies? Surely the FBI kept a watch over this... It may not hold Hoecker accoutable but might lead to others that could be held accountable...just a thought.
It is interesting to me that the producers focused on that one person, how many other Germans are in that particular photo? I do not recall the show telling us who they were at all let alone for certain. If you look at all of the photos at the USHMM web site there are a great many Germans in the pictures, Perhaps if the photos were indeed taken in a short time frame then it would be possible to say who any of them were - if it were to actually matter at all.
And just how many Germans in the camp were 1.75 meters tall I wonder...
I have seen the "Auschwitz Album" and more recently Hoecker's album on line, however there is something that is different when you view these on line and then watch the full screen on TV with an explanation of the two dichotomies that are occurring simultaneously. When I view Hoecker's scapbook it makes me even more angry because you see these people that I truly want to hate behaving like normal people. It really bothers me. I am disgusted that Hoecker only got 7 years in prison. You can't tell me that the position that he was in that he was not involved in every aspect of the operations Auschwitz. He knew what was going on, he participated and faciltiated in the efficiency of the monstrous machine. I hope that there is a day of reckoning for some. I agree though that it does not do much good at this point to expend resources to try to determine if Hoecker was actually depicted in the pictures. I can tell you he had to be there and since he enjoyed photos so much he probably ordered some underling to take the pictures that Lili Jacob found. It would take someone in a very high rank to authorize pictures being taken since the Nazi's were sensitive to hiding all evidence of the crimes they had committed.
In addition, I hated the title of this piece. I would not have normally tuned in due to that, but out of curiosity I did, then when I realized the subject matter I watched.
I will be curious to see what other items turn up as our preceding generation passes and their relatives come into possession items that they have buried away.
This album was in the hands of a U.S. Officer assigned to tracking down nazi's?
Then why did he keep the book for years when the identities could have been proven and used for the trial of many of the guilty parties..
Whoever this "anonymous" donor was,,he should be dug up,court-martialed,and then stripped of his Lt.Colonel status for hinderring apprehension.
His turning a blind eye makes him a co-conspirator in my book.
I watched the show in utter amazement that these people cared so little for human life that they could have parties and laugh when thousands were lined up just a short distance away awaiting the gas chambers. To me it did not make them look human it made them look like demons.
I, too, was concerned with the all efforts to positively identify the man on the ramp with his back to the camera. If nothing else, who would want to be "convicted," even on TV, of such a horrible crime on the basis of a picture of his or her back? Therefore, I was glad when the historian said during his conversation with the photo analysts that instead of focusing on the identity of that one man, it is helpful to look at the bigger picture -- that everyone has a capacity for evil. He was saying that we must guard against becoming complacent, lest the man on the ramp turn around and we see our own face.
Ken Duke
When the so called forensic "experts" tried to determine whether or not it was Hoecker on the ramps I was amazed that they missed the most obvious clue, Hoeckers uniform !!! He was an officer, the person pictured was wearing an NCO's uniform, DUH! So it cannot possibly be Hoecker. SG
The album shows clearly that Karl Hoeker came to Auschwitz as an SS Obersturmführer (1st Lieutenant). There's no way any SS officer would have been caught dead in an enlisted man's uniform except as a disguise while trying to flee Allied justice, as Himmler did after the war. Plainly the man on the platform is not Karl Hoeker. I'm surprised that neither Rebecca Erbelding nor Michael Berenbaum of the National Holocaust Museum didn't set the documentary producers straight on this before they wasted so much time and effort. One thing's for sure: The beleaguered LAPD has once again given itself a black eye with a profoundly half-baked investigative blunder by its Forensic Analysis team on national television.
I was rather irritated by the waste of fifteen minutes trying to place Hoecker on the ramp. I was pleased to see that others had noticed the NCO braid around the collar and epaulets. I expected better considering the experts they used.
The thing to remember is that unless we study and teach history, almost anyone can be conditioned through education, conditioning, and circumstances to committ these sorts of crimes.
Glad to see many posters also found fault with the "serious" analysis of Hoecker. All sorts of deceit and deceptions employed - to no avail. This is the tip of the proverbial iceberg of lies. Dig deeper folks and you'll expose much of the lies that have been told for over 60yrs.
Anyone who claims that these atrocities didn't happen, and on the scale that history amply documents, is either delusional or trying to delude. My comment was only on the misguided efforts of the documentary producers and the LAPD Forensic Analysts to identify the officer Hoeker with the NCO on the platform.
I watched this show for the second time and I am still amazed that there has been no correction to the Hocker claims made by the producers, why is this?
It is evident the man on the ramp is not Hocker. Besides the uniform being incorrect and the setting of the the other "3" photographs to 1.75 m by the forensic investigator, to match the height of Hocker, I find it an obvious attempt of Nazi Hunters to drum up some more justice. When will the witch hunt end? I do not support the Nazi cause or agree with what they did. However false evindence is not the way to go about things either. Another obvious descep. Why didn't they use the ridding crop as a guide for the height of the man on the ramp?
Well darn it!!!!
I took a look at the photo of the man on the ramp again.
A couple of other things...
The man on the ramp...has a huge head, so much so that his cap is tight. Also the hair cut is and color is incorrect to match.
Eric:
"History amply documents" History, as written by the victors and interested "others."
No one denies people died in Nazi camps. Most casualties from disease, starvation, natural causes - all to be expected as Nazis were losing war. Resupplying camps was becoming less of a priority. More importantly rail/roads bombed by allies, so how could supplies get through. Yes, there were some executions - not millions. btw camps like Auschwitz were inspected by Intl Red Cross during conflict (in fact their record of deaths conflicts greatly with list compiled by interested "others").
"Misguided efforts" More like manipulative efforts. As the truth is slowly revealed, such deceptive practices are being exposed.
So what if Hoecker was an officer and the soldier an NCO. A small point to the gist of the documentary...the dichotomy between the horror of the holocaust and the normalcy of the Nazis involved. The documentary says more about the potential of our specie than the identification of one individual.
I was kind of hoping for a reply or comment here from the show's historians or producers on the Hoeker's uniform dispute.
The silence is deafening.
Does anyone know how you can purchase a copy of this show? I have tried looking on line but can't find it anywhere on this site or others...
I really don't wish to offend anybody but I really get annoyed when I hear people say this sort of thing must never happen again. It's all around us, just more subtle.
Partial birth abortion comprises inducing birth until the baby's head is showing, then they smash open its skull and suck the brain out, then remove the baby's body and drop it in a bucket. This procedure is done to unborn babies who are often older than some premature babies whose parents love them and pray for their survival. They're little babies being butchered without anaesthetic in a manner worthy of the worst Auschwitz doctor!!!
It isn't as difficult as one might wish it to be to understand how these SS men had no remorse. They did not regard the people they were killing as human. It is as vile and as simple as that.
Ask a partial birth abortionist if he feels guilty and he will tell you it is only a foetus when quite clearly it is a baby. It's the same get out clause. Why feel guilty if what one is killing isn't human according to one's sick belief system?
The unborn are the new Jews in a sense. They have been reclassified as non-human and therefore not entitled to human rights. Murdered in their millions, society turns a blind eye and doesn't care. The words plus ca change come to mind.
Rebecca (you're stunningly beautiful by the way) the work you are doing is tremendously valuable but don't kid yourself the same evil isn't still here. America just voted for a man who won't veto partial birth abortion. Mengele's spirit is in the White House even as I write this.
Any woman who has had an abortion, any doctor who has performed one, has probably worked through a sequence of thoughts not dissimilar to the mindset of the smiling people in the Hoecker album. "It's a dirty job but it has to be done. It's for the best, for a greater good. It's not pleasant but... etc."
Each generation it seems sneers and judges the evils of its predecessors while remaining blinkered to their own generation's hypocrisies. We are no better than the people in the album. In one sense it could even be argued that we are worse because we know and yet still we tolerate this.
Hoeker only got seven years because no witnesses could positively identify him as being on the ramp. The producers of this "documentary" were trying to place Hoeker at the ramp to prove he was culpable in the selection process. Why they wasted the footage, time, and trouble of the LAPD on identifying a man who obviously was not Hoeker I do not know. (Then even more surprising, the LAPD and the producers try to suggest Hoeker switched uniforms with an Oberscharfuhrer the second day he was at Auschwitz! Why would he even bother?) Did it ever occur to the producers that maybe Hoeker was the one who took the pictures at the selection and that is why he is not in them.
It is well documented that the members of the SS-TV and Einsatzgruppen were well supplied with liquor to lubricate any torque their moral dilemma. Refer to Christopher R. Browning's book Ordinary Men. Hoeker's photo album supports Browning's book and illustrates why Daniel Goldhagen is full of dung.
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