A unique photo from Höcker’s album

Below I would like to show you a unique photo from the so-called "Höcker's album", in which we see Richard Baer (the first on the left), ​​the last commandant of Auschwitz.The photo was taken shortly after he took up this position.

Next, we see Joseph Mengele, a camp doctor known from medical experiments carried out on prisoners and from frequent selections of prisoners whom he sent to death.

The third important person is Rudolf Höss, the first commandant and founder of the Auschwitz camp, who returned to Oświęcim in May 1944 as the overseer of the extermination of Hungarian Jews. He was the head of the office at the Concentration Camps Inspectorate at the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office. A separate article will definitely appear about each of these people. An interesting fact is that it is one of the few preserved photographs from the times when camps existed. Reichsführer SS H. Himmler strictly banned taking any pictures in Auschwitz and other camps.

In the background we can also see Joseph Kramer, the commandant of the following German concentration camps: Natzweiler-Struthof, Auschwitz II-Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen.

The photo was taken at the SS holiday resort in Międzybrodzie Bialskie between spring and summer of 1944. Currently, the photo, as well as the entire album, are located in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.