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United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |
Karl Höcker, adjutant to the commandant of Auschwitz,
lights a candle on a Christmas tree. |
THE BANALITY OF EVIL
Enjoying a Picnic. Relaxing on a sun deck.
Eating blueberries. Flirting.
These are the everyday moments captured in the
photos on this page ? people relaxing, smiling, having fun after a hard
day?s work. The banal subjects depicted by these photos do not make them
special ? it is their context that elevates them, that makes them
haunting.
These photos come from the album of SS officer Karl
Höecker, the adjutant to the commandant at the Auschwitz concentration
camp. They were taken between June and December of 1944 ? when the
camp?s gas chambers were running at full tilt and crematoriums
broke down from overuse during the mass extermination of hundreds of
thousands of Hungarian Jews. In the shadow of that horror, its perpetrators enjoyed picnics, and sun
decks, and sing-alongs.
We want to call these people monsters, for the
deeds they did or facilitated beyond the frames of these photos were
truly monstrous. But here, they are revealed as merely
people, and it is this which makes these images so chilling.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |
SS officer Karl Höcker and SS women relax on
lounge chairs on a deck in Solahütte, a lodge on the outskirts of
Auschwitz. |
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |
Karl Höcker and other Nazi officers pose
with female SS auxiliaries on a wooden bridge at SS retreat Solahütte,
outside of Auschwitz. |
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |
SS officer Oswald Pohl poses with Auschwitz
commandant Richard Baer while on official visit to the camp by
automobile. |
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |
SS officer Karl Höcker pets his dog Favorit. |
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |
Three SS officers socialize on the grounds of the SS retreat Solahütte outside of Auschwitz. From left to right they are: Auschwitz
commandant Richard Baer, Dr. Joseph Mengele, and Rudolf Hoess (the former Auschwitz
commandant). |
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |
Members of the SS Helferinnen (female auxiliaries) arrive at Solahütte, the SS retreat near Auschwitz. Karl Höcker is standing in the center. |
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |
SS officer Karl Höcker poses with members of the SS female auxiliaries as they eat bowls of blueberries and listen to another officer play the
accordion. |
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |
Four SS officers gather for drinks in a hunting lodge. Second from right is Richard Baer, Commandant of
Auschwitz. |
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |
Karl Höcker sits with other SS officers and SS physicians around a table, drinking after an afternoon outing. |
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