Do "Documentary" Photographs Prove Persecution?

Do "Documentary" Photographs Prove the
National Socialist Extermination of the Jews?

UDO WALENDY

1. Introduction

Photographs already played a central role in the arsenal with which Allied war propaganda slandered the enemy in World War One, as F. Avenarius has shown with numerous examples.1 Retouching techniques were admittedly quite crude in those days, and the falsifications were thus easy for a critical examiner to detect. However, such critical souls were few and far between and, more importantly, not at all welcome in the agitated atmosphere of the First World War. Today people shake their heads in astonishment that even drawings and caricatures of contemporaries, crudely drawn and easily recognizable as such, were accepted as sterling truth. But do we really have any cause for such a condescending attitude?

A. Jaubert has shown that dictatorships in particular have a strong inclination for manipulating photos or producing posed and even completely faked photographs.2 Jaubert deals primarily with the self-portrayal of rulers by means of altered and 'improved' photographs and, unfortunately, all but dispenses with the interesting aspect of wartime propaganda - as well as the propaganda engaged in by democratic nations, which rarely exhibit any greater scruples in this matter than dictatorships. Great Britain no doubt leads this crowd.

One of Jaubert's examples warrants a closer look here. On page 78 of his book he reproduces a photograph that shows the abuse of English prisoners-of-war in France by French civilians at the time of German occupation during the Second World War. Jaubert interprets this as a photo posed by the German occupation troops. However, he provides no evidence to support his claim. Since the Allies also launched massive air raids on French cities, resulting in heavy losses of life among the civilian population,3 it certainly is not inconceivable that the French might have vented some anger on Allied prisoners-of-war, especially in light of the fact that a considerable part of the French population collaborated with the Germans, partly out of opportunism, partly out of conviction. But the Allied bombing of French targets as well as the war-time collaboration with the Germans are taboos in today's French society. Therefore - is the photograph Jaubert shows really posed, or is his interpretation incorrect because in his opinion that which must not be cannot be?

2. Techniques of Falsifying Photographs, and Their Detection

We distinguish between three kinds of forgery, as follows:

1. Genuine and unretouched photographs are given false captions. This is not actually a falsification of the photos per se, but rather a false account of what is shown. However, this has ever been one of the most effective methods of deception, since after all the photo itself is genuine and the misleading caption can often be exposed only if what the picture actually does show can be proved by means of reliable sources. In some cases, though, details in a photograph can suffice to prove that the alleged content is false - for example, when the location, persons or objects appearing in the photo cannot be reconciled with what the caption claims.

2. Genuine photos are altered as to their details. This entails, first, targeting only specific sections of a photo in order to remove such parts as would refute the false, alleged message the photo is to convey. A second variation involves the addition or insertion of a genuine - changed or unchanged - portion of a photo into another photo, which in turn may also be genuine or faked, resulting in an alteration of the overall message the photo conveys. Alteration of the genuine portion is then usually confined to a change in the faces shown, or to making undesired parts of the photo unrecognizable. Up until the late 1970s and early 1980s this was done by hand, by artistically changing or supplementing enlargements of the photo. Falsifications of this type are usually easy for the practised eye to detect, since shadows, perspective, and realistic depictions are rarely rendered perfectly. There are cases, however, where such changes are made with brilliant precision, and cases where those changes are deliberately made difficult to prove by out-of-focus photographing of the altered copy.

Today, advanced computer technology allows for the almost limitless manipulation of photo documents, and changes are no longer provable. Modern computer systems can perform perfect manipulations of shadows and distortions of perspective as well as of natural colors and shapes on existing photographs that are scanned into a computer. Photo documents have thus lost all their evidential value today. For this reason, any photograph relating to controversial historical topics and published for the first time nowadays must be strictly rejected as evidence. Only proof that the physical material of the corresponding negative or transparency dates from pre-computer days restores a photo to its status as historical document.

3. Complete forgery. If an alleged documentary photograph consists of a photographed drawing, or if it has been assembled from parts of other photos, this represents a complete forgery. The dividing line between altered photos and complete forgeries is by its very nature a fluid one. Like retouched photographs, such forgeries may be exposed through the detection of inconsistencies in the way shadows are cast, in perspective, shape and color, line direction, as well as by a proof of the impossibility of certain combinations of persons, objects and locations shown.

Thanks to modern computer technology, the considerations set out in 2. also apply to the evidential value of recent documentary photographs.

3. 'Documentary' Photographs Regarding the Persecution of the Jews in the Third Reich

In light of the dubious circumstances under which witness testimony, confessions and affidavits, but also documents of all kinds attesting to the National Socialist persecution of the Jews came and continue to come about and which the present volume points out time and again, can one really assume without any critical second thoughts that all the 'documentary' photographs about the National Socialist persecution of the Jews which have been shown to us in recent years are genuine? Or would it not be more prudent to proceed with caution, and to subject each of these photos to critical examination?

In fact there has been only one monograph to date which deals with the actual or alleged documentary photographs of the National Socialist persecution of the Jews.4 A. Jaubert does not discuss this subject, perhaps because he does not consider it politically opportune to do so. G. Frey5 touches on this topic, but in my opinion he does not give it as much attention as it deserves. Aside from these examples, any discussion by the Establishment's historians of the authenticity of such documentary photographs is confined to polemics and to criminal charges against doubters and critics.

This is indeed an alarming state of affairs, since in this age of illustrated magazines and television, documentary photographs have a powerful pedagogic influence on the people, and faked photos therefore have a propagandistic and even incendiary effect that can hardly be overestimated. This is particularly so in the context of the National Socialist persecution of the Jews, as this is a topic for which the vast majority of the people have by now acquired a sort of Pavlovian response, a ritualistic consternation that renders any critical assessment of the evidence presented virtually impossible.

In the following, some pictures that are offered over and over again as proof of actual or presumed events of the National Socialist persecution of the Jews will be discussed and critically analyzed. Due to the limited space available, this discussion cannot be anything near comprehensive, neither with respect to the number of photos requiring analysis nor in terms of the scope of each analysis. A comprehensive critique of the well-known 'documentary' photographs on this topic, which would go beyond my previous work,6 needs yet to be compiled.

3.1 Mis-Captioned Photographs

It is often difficult to prove that a photograph shows what the caption claims it shows. One generally has only eyewitness testimony as corroboration, namely that of the photographer on the one hand and, on the other, that of people who witnessed the event and perhaps appear in the photo. The location depicted on the photo helps to determine the place and sometimes the time that a picture was taken. The presence, in the photo, of well-known personalities whose participation in the event is verifiable can go a long way towards facilitating identification. If, however, a photo shows only people whose identity cannot be ascertained, and if the background of the photo shows nothing unique or characteristic that would permit the picture to be spatially and perhaps also temporally fixed, then one is truly at the mercy of the photographer and his statements. If even the photographer is unknown, and all the evidence one has depends on witnesses and hearsay, then such photographs are all but worthless as historical documents, since anyone is free to make any unverifiable claims he wants to as regards the alleged content.

In fact, both the persons shown as well as the originators of the photos are completely unknown for all the pictures reproduced in the following. This is a condition that applies to almost all so-called 'documentary' photographs pertaining to the murder of the Jews. Actually this in itself ought to be reason enough to dispense with "photo documents" altogether. But let us take a look at some examples anyhow.

Ill. 1: So-called shrunken heads, from R. Neumann, Hitler - Aufstieg und Untergang des Dritten Reichs, Munich: Oldenbourg, 1961, p. 183.

Our first photo shows what is alleged to be a collection of medical specimens which the American troops found on liberating the camp Buchenwald. These specimens are said to be parts of the bodies of deceased inmates. Lampshades, book bindings and bookmarks of tattooed human skin, as well as two shrunken heads, caused a particular sensation. Aside from the general Nuremberg indictment, these served as the primary evidence in the trials of Ilse Koch, the wife of the former Commandant of Buchenwald. She was said to select living inmates on the basis of their tattoos, and to have them killed in order to have various commodities manufactured from their skins. In his detailed study of the matter, A. L. Smith found that the objects which the U.S. Commission had identified as consisting of human skin disappeared without a trace after being sent to the International Military Tribunal (IMT) in Nuremberg.7 According to a statement of the American General Clay, the alleged 'lampshades from human skin' were in fact made of goat hide.8 All the objects discovered later were either of imitation leather or animal hide, fabric or pasteboard. The charges brought against Ilse Koch later, before a German court, were based solely on the untrustworthy testimony of the professional witnesses from Dachau trials, which Manfred Köhler has already discussed in the present volume. Amid the atmosphere of hysteria, "propaganda and mass suggestion"9 prevailing at the time, Ilse Koch - who had previously been sentenced to life imprisonment by the Americans in Dachau, but had eventually been pardoned - was again sentenced to life imprisonment by a German court, and later committed suicide. The two shrunken heads that were submitted in evidence turned out to be of South American origin, and bore the inventory control number of a German anthropological museum.

A. L. Smith suggests that there had been a medical student from the University of Jena in the concentration camp Buchenwald, who had written his dissertation on the relationship between skin tattoos and crime. In this context, use may possibly have been made of tattooed skin, albeit taken from inmates who had already died.10 Since the taking of organs or tissue from deceased persons is neither unusual nor reprehensible when done for medical and educational purposes and with the consent of the deceased or their relatives, the question is whether and in what context the skin was taken. In any case, tales attributed to the objects found are lies through and through.

Ill. 2: Allegedly these are victims of a massacre perpetrated by the battalion 'Nachtigall'. From H. Bergschicker, Der zweite Weltkrieg, Berlin: Deutscher Militärverlag, 1968.

According to Bergschicker, Illustration 2 shows the victims butchered by the Ukrainian nationalist battalion "Nachtigall", whose political officer allegedly was Theodor Oberländer.11 In his book Der rote Rufmord, Kurt Ziesel proved that this campaign against the then Federal Minister was based on a false caption.12 The photo in fact shows victims of the Soviet NKVD, which liquidated enemies of the regime en masse before the Red Army retreated in 1941. This case is not an isolated one. It is common practice to blame heaps of dead bodies on some putative culprit, and since the Germans have been conditioned to be credulous and ever ready to make overhasty declarations of guilt, they are the favored target.

Ill. 3: The photo reproduced in the American magazine Life of May 21, 1945, showing the "bodies of almost 3,000 slave laborers in Nordhausen".

Illustration 3 shows a similar example, which was reprinted in the May 21, 1945 issue of the American magazine Life, among others. The photo allegedly shows dead slave laborers from the concentration camp Nordhausen. In its commentary the magazine suggested that these inmates died of starvation, overwork, and beatings. In fact, however, M. Broszat and others have determined that these dead concentration camp inmates were victims of an Allied air raid.13

Ill. 4: Photo of typhus victims, taken following the British occupation of the concentration camp Bergen-Belsen and published as 'victims of Auschwitz' in various periodicals, eg. Quick in 1979.

Illustration 4 allegedly shows victims of mass murder in Auschwitz.14 The bodies are actually those of inmates who had succumbed to typhus in the concentration camp Bergen-Belsen. To date no similar photos have been found of Auschwitz or other sites of alleged mass exterminations. The deliberate misrepresentation of victims of starvation, typhus, supply shortages of all kinds, and unhygienic conditions in the camps of the Third Reich towards the end of the War is thus probably done out of sheer necessity, due to the painful lack of other, real pictures. It was no doubt the case that the hellish conditions prevailing in the western camps gave the uninformed Western Allied observers the impression that mass killings had been carried out deliberately in these camps, so that the corresponding initial Allied reports may be understandable enough. In truth, however, these conditions were the result of external circumstances such as, for example, the evacuation of camps near the Front, whose inmates were (foolishly enough) transferred into the national interior at this time on Himmler's orders;15 the total overcrowding resulting from this measure for the remaining camps, as well as the break-down of sanitary, medical and food supply lines to the camps due to the collapse of the infrastructure of the Third Reich which was being bombed to death at this time, combined to give rise to the horrific conditions in the camps. Norbert Frei comments on the reaction of the western Allies when they arrived in the concentration camps:16

"The shock at what they discovered infrequently led to factually incorrect conclusions, some of which were to prove rather persistent. Paradoxically enough, they could also give rise to politically and historically correct conclusions."

Ill. 5a: Retouched photograph, captioned "transports into ghettos and extermination camps", in H. Eschwege, Kennzeichen J, Berlin: Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, 1981.

By historically correct conclusions he probably means those allegations of mass extermination that have been disproved for the Western camps but are said to be correct for the alleged extermination camps in the East. As for the politically accurate conclusions, these probably relate to the desirable effects that mis-captioning such photos has in terms of 'public education'.17

3.2 Doctored Photos

Photo 5a has been repeatedly presented as proof of inhumane deportations of Jews into ghettos and extermination camps,18 and has also been broadcast as such on German television.19 The photo archives of the Federal Railway Administration in Hamburg, however, reveal what this picture really shows. It is a freight train crowded with German refugees bound for the Ruhr region, standing in the Hamburg train station in 1946.

Ill. 5b: The original photo of the Federal Railway Administration. Its caption: "Freight trains full of refugees, 1946. Crowded freight train bound for the Ruhr region. Background, double-decker train to Lübeck."

The unretouched original photo, Illustration 5b, hangs in the Hamburg Main Station.20 This photo shows, on the left, double decker passenger carriages on their way to Lübeck, and on the right, parts of the Main Station buildings. Both of these elements would have allowed for the photo location to be identified as the Hamburg Main Station, and both were retouched or cut out in the doctored version. - This is by no means to say that there were no deportations of Jews into ghettos or concentration camps, and it is also not meant to suggest that these transports took place only in comfortable passenger trains, although this certainly was the case particularly in the early stage of the deportations. The exposure of this forgery is only meant to urge a more sceptical approach to alleged documentary photographs.

Ill. Group 6 Ill. 7: Caricature from the French work Israël souviens-toi! Think of it, Israel, Israel, denke daran, ed. by E. Varlin and published in Paris in 1935.

Picture Group 6 really needs no further comment.21 Depending on which version one looks at, it is alleged to show the Munich Jew Dr. S(p)iegel (or, alternatively, A. Schwartz) who asked the police for protection in 1933 but was instead supplied with a poster, deprived of shoes, socks and trousers, and paraded through the city center. Other sources claim that this is a scene from the Reichskristallnacht, ie. from the night of November 9, 1938 (since when is there broad daylight at night?). Despite intensive research it has not yet been possible to learn the true identity of this man. It was determined that in 1979 a Jew known as Dr. Michael Siegel, holder of the Bundesverdienstkreuz (the Order of the Federal Republic of Germany), passed away at his home in Peru, but no-one has yet been able to provide the public with a photo of him.22

The photos on which the picture is based have obviously been greatly retouched, which is revealed not only by the ever-changing text on the poster but also by the surreal and out-of-focus lower half of Mr. S(p)iegel/Schwartz.

Illustration 7 is an interesting caricature that looks astonishingly like photo group 6; it had already been published in 1935, but it was not claimed to be based on a real photograph.23 The photos shown in group 6, on the other hand, were published one by one after the War. This begs the interesting question: what came first, the cartoon or the photo? Could it possibly be a complete fake? Grounds enough for speculation...

Ill. 8 (a,b): The photo at left was published in the news magazine Spiegel (42/1966) with the caption, "Perfect slave system in the SS-state"; at right we see a variation on this theme, captioned "SS-sadists 'prescribe' 'tree-hanging'", reproduced in H. Eschwege, op. cit. (Note ), p. 266.

According to the news magazine Spiegel, Illustration 8 shows a concentration camp guard with his victims in Buchenwald. The inmates are said to have their hands tied and be hung from trees.24 I can only urge everyone to try this for himself: go to a gym, suspend yourself from wall bars with your arms up and back, and try to keep your knees bent. I compliment you on your well-toned stomach muscles if you can hold this pose for more than a minute. Incidentally, the string with which the supposed inmates are tied to the trees appears to be amazingly strong. It cannot be rope, as ropes would be thick enough to be visible on a photo. Thus, this would seem to be a photomontage, if not a complete fake, ie. a painting.

Ill. 9 (a): Captioned "SS-men cut stars into Jews' skin", this picture appeared in Faschismus, Getto, Massenmord, pub. in Frankfurt/Main by the Jewish Historical Institute of Warsaw, 1960; p. 42.

Ill. 9 (b,c): left: detail, published in R. Neumann, Hitler - Aufstieg und Untergang des Dritten Reichs (op. cit. Note ); note that the 'stars' have moved. Left: the same picture as shown in T. Kotarbinski, Meczenstwo walka, zaglada zydow W Polsce 1939-1945, Warsaw, 1960, Picture No. 38.

In early 1994, Illustrations 9 (a, b, c) took on modern-day significance when a girl in Halle drew a swastika on herself and proceeded to lead the media, the public prosecutors and the entire left-wing German-guilt clique by the nose, in the process giving rise to massive demonstrations protesting against 'the right-wing radicals'.25 Her idea was nothing new, as one can see from the ever-changing Stars of David on the heads and forehead of the three anonymous Jews photographed here before a completely neutral background.26 Photomontage or painting?

Ill. 10: from R. Schnabel, Macht ohne Moral.

Ill. 11: from V. Berdych, Mauthausen.

According to R. Schnabel, Illustration 10 shows living inmates sitting near dead ones in concentration camp Mauthausen.27 Illustration 11 is a genuine photo, a portion of which is very similar to part of Illustration 10. It shows illinmates sunning themselves in the Russian area of concentration camp Mauthausen.28 The inmates shown correspond almost perfectly. What is noteworthy about Illustration 10 is, first of all, its lack of focus compared with the original, which makes any falsification difficult to detect. Also, it is clear that the barracks in the background at left have been completely redrawn, just as the entire right-hand portion of the picture was added. The barracks at right have a crooked window, and their shadow extends in the wrong direction.

Ill. 13: An enlargement of Ill. 12, in G. Schoenberner, op. cit. (Note ), p. 162. The left arm of the man stepping over the supposed bodies is far too long and seems to have two elbows. What is more, the bodies lying on the ground are not only in very poor focus but also anatomically impossible.

Ill. 12: Shown as Document 57 by Pressac, also in the German edition Die Krematorien von Auschwitz, Munich: Piper, 1994.

Illustration 12 allegedly shows the open-air cremation of victims of mass gassing in Crematorium V in Birkenau, as photographed from a window of Crematorium V.29 And in fact the fence in the background and the forest beyond do approximate the site as it was at that time. One of the air photos available today also shows some traces of smoke at the location in question.30 It is thus possible that this picture is based on a genuine photo. Some details of Illustration 12, however, give grounds for suspicion. There is, for example, the figure standing in the left background, appearing as little more than an outline and leaning on a stick. Since all the other figures in this picture are brightly illuminated by the sun, thisinexplicably dark and shapeless figure does not fit in. The shapes of the alleged corpses are also strange, especially those enlarged in Illustration 13. Presumably, therefore, the desired 'truth' was given a boost here by adding bodies and workers to turn a real fire into a cremation scene. But even if the picture were genuine: are the bodies those of victims of gassing or of a typhus epidemic?

Ill. 15b: From Gerhard Schoenberner, Der gelbe Stern, Hamburg, 1960. The caption comments: "The photographer of these women entering the gas chamber with their children in their arms is unknown."

Ill. 15a: from: Jewish Historical Institute of Warsaw, Faschismus - Getto - Massenmord (p. 334), captioned: "Women with children just before execution."

Ill. 15c: from: S. Einstein, Eichmann - Chefbuchhalter des Todes, Frankfurt/Main, 1961, p. 202.

Illustration Group 14 (a, b, c) is said to document the execution of Polish Jews at the edge of an open grave.31 Sometimes the shooting soldier is wearing glasses, sometimes he is not; sometimes his collar patch has white edges, sometimes not. He looks as though he was cut out and pasted in: there are white outlines around his uniform, and he lacks a shadow. The men at the transition into the background also look cut-and-pasted. Try to match their legs to their bodies! This is possibly a photomontage at best, but definitely at least a forgery with drawn-in sections.

3.3 Total Fabrications

Illustration Group 15 allegedly shows naked inmates lined up outside the gas chambers of Treblinka.32 Only children, and persons mentally paralysed by mass suggestion, could failto distinguish between a real photo and this painted scene, which has even been altered in its third version by the addition of one more woman.

The same goes for Group 16, purported to show naked inmates prior to mass execution in Latvia.33

Ill. Group 16: left, from G. Schoenberner, Der gelbe Stern, captioned "Mass execution in Lijepaja"; right, from S. Einstein, Eichmann - Chefbuchhalter des Todes.

Ill. Group 17: left, from R. Schnabel, Macht ohne Moral, captioned: "Thousands of shoes from murdered inmates in Auschwitz"; right, from C. Simonov, The Lublin Extermination Camp.

Illustration Group 17 is said to show mountains of shoes collected from inmates murdered in Auschwitz - or in Majdanek, depending on whose version one chooses.34 The fuzzy background and the unrealistic, drawing-like appearance of the shoes in these pictures, which are alike as to the shoes shown but very different in every other respect, again suggest that this is nothing more than a drawing.

The public is often shown heaps of shoes, eyeglasses, shaving brushes,wedding rings or similar artifacts as proof of the extermination of the Jews. From a logical point of view, this evidence is just about as conclusive as the claim that the great piles of used clothing which are collected in Germany each year, for example by the Red Cross, prove that the Red Cross exterminates the German people while collecting the clothing. In fact it seems to have been largely forgotten today that due to the chronic shortage of raw materials, virtually everything was collected and recycled under the Third Reich, especially during the War. What is to say, therefore, that the occasional genuine photo may not simply show the results of such collection drives?35 It is not even out of the question that such items were collected by the Allies for purposes of precisely this sort of propaganda photo.36

This kind of 'evidence', which in any case is utterly unsuited to proving anything, has a particularly tragic aspect, in that for some strange reason such collections of objects impress the average viewer as especially convincing, and ensure a fundamental feeling of consternation, as was revealed by the movie Todesmühlen, which was shown to the German people after the War and which contained scenes of this sort.37

3.4 Movies

Shortly after the end of the War, the Americans showed this movie (Todesmühlen) to the German civilian population as well as to the many hundreds of thousands of German prisoners-of-war. It allegedly showed the atrocities committed in the concentration camps, and was meant to contribute to the reeducation of the German people. The authenticity of the movie by no means went uncontested. For example, B. S. Chamberlin reports occasional disturbances during the screenings, but the protests were nipped in the bud, at times violently, by the deeply affected remainder of the audience. According to contemporaneous reports, what prompted the criticism was that the (probably authentic) photos and film clips of the conditions prevailing in the German concentration camps at the end of the War were supplemented with scenes showing the mountains of dead Germans from bombed German cities, and emaciated German internees in the camps of 'automatic arrest' - which, however, were passed off by the victors as victims of German concentration camps.38 Since Chamberlin reports that the Occupation Authorities had trouble finding enough material to put the movie together,39 it is by no means inconceivable that this was the 'last resort'. Unfortunately these charges were never recorded in writing and documented, so that it is perforce difficult to investigate the matter today, particularly as the only generation of witnesses is gradually dying out.

A complete forgery of a film that has meanwhile been proven as such was shown by the Americans during the IMT trials. It was the cinematic record of the alleged discovery of goldteeth from murdered Jews in the Reichsbank in Frankfurt.40 During the trial and in the course of the later investigations, however, it turned out that the Americans had staged this scene from beginning to end.41 Where the alleged gold fillings came from and where they got to is no less a mystery than is the fate of the human skins allegedly discovered in the concentration camp Buchenwald.

A more complicated matter, on the other hand, is that of the film which the Americans also showed during the IMT trials and which, like Todesmühlen, was also claimed to show the alleged atrocities in the concentration camps. Aside from presenting the false claim that inmates were gassed in the showers of Dachau, this movie also showed the infamous shrunken heads and the supposed artifacts made from human skins, as well as many inmates who had died of malnutrition and typhus; the movie commentary, however, was misleading.

Ill. 18: Scene from the movie Schindler's List.

The film that the Soviets made of the liberation of the Auschwitz camp but did not release until the mid-1980s is also liberally sprinkled with fake scenes. For example, the film shows the head of an inmate whose torso was allegedly burned on a pyre, while the head stares into the camera, eyes full of horror. If the torso had really been consumed by the fire, the head would not possibly have retained its full shock of hair, and the eyes would at least have clouded, if not burst, from the heat.

What strikes me as odd in this context is that no Soviet film of alleged atrocities committed by the Americans in Korea or Vietnam would ever be accepted as the truth by the Western nations without a prior, thorough critical analysis, yet this film and others like it that incriminate the Third Reich are used without any second thoughts as educational material in Western schools.

Feature films such as Holocaust, Shoah and Schindler's List are in a completely different category. They naturally have no evidential value whatsoever, but their psychological impact on the masses is immense and powerful.42 Even though the historians' assessment of the movie Holocaust - namely, that it is factually untenable - applies equally to the other movies as well, they are nevertheless gladly received for the welcome effect they have on 'public education and opinion steering'!43

Ills. 19 & 20: Correction by John Ball, based on US air photos from 1944.

One example shall suffice to demonstrate the historically unacceptable nature of such movies. Illustration 18 shows a scene from Schindler's List where Camp Commandant Göth, standing on the balcony of his house, takes random potshots at the inmates ofthe Plaszow Camp. Air photos from that time, however, reveal that the Commandant's housewas located at the foot of a hill, while the camp itself was on top of that hill (Illustration 20).44 The scene shown in the movie, which would have required a configuration of house and camp such as shown in Illustration 19, was thus impossible, if only for geographical reasons.

Schindler's List, which is based on a declared work of fiction,45 was deliberately filmed in black-and-white and with unsteady camera work in order to convey to the audience the false impression that the film is a documentary; contributors to the movie have freely admitted this.46 This clearly shows the intentions of the film-makers and of those who take school classes and even entire schools to see this movie, and not only in Germany and Austria.

4. Instead of a Conclusion: Some Less Well-Known Genuine Photos

Illustration Group 21 shows victims of the Holocaust of German civilians in the residential sections of German cities that were deliberately bombed by the Allies.47 Altogether, some 1 million Germans died like this as a result of Allied terror-bombing in Germany.48 There is a world of difference between these photos and those of emaciated victims of starvation and typhus in German concentration camps.

Ill. Group 21 (a,b,c,d): German civilian victims of Allied bombing attacks. Payload dropped: 2,767,000 tons.

F. Avenarius, Das Bild als Verleumder, Munich: Callwey, 1916; F. Avenarius, Das Bild als Narr, ibid., 1918; cf. U. Walendy, Historische Tatsachen No. 22: "Alliierte Kriegspropaganda 1914-1919", Vlotho: Verlag für Volkstum und Zeitgeschichtsforschung, 1984, cited in the following as HT.
A. Jaubert, Fotos, die lügen, Frankfurt/Main: Athenäum, 1989.
eg. cf. the introduction to: A. Grosser, Ermordung der Menschheit, Munich: Hanser, 1990, p. 9.
U. Walendy, Bild-'Dokumente' für die Geschichtsschreibung?, Vlotho: Verlag für Volkstum und Zeitgeschichtsforschung, 1973; cf. also U. Walendy, Europa in Flammen, v. II, ibid., 1967, documentary appendix, and U. Walendy, The Journal of Historical Review (JHR) 1(1) (1980): 59-67.
G. Frey (ed.), Vorsicht Fälschung, Munich: FZ-Verlag, 1991, pp. 246-267.
Aside from the works cited previously (Note ), reference is also made in this context to the many individual examples which have been published time and again in the various issues of Historische Tatsachen, Vlotho: Verlag für Volkstum und Zeitgeschichtsforschung, 1975-1994.
A. L. Smith, Die 'Hexe von Buchenwald', Cologne: Böhlau, 1983, pp. 103, 138, 153, 164; U. Walendy, HT No. 43, 1990, pp. 15ff.; G. Frey, op. cit. (Note ), pp. 200ff., 211; A. Mohler, Der Nasenring, Essen: Heitz & Höffkes, 1989, pp. 133ff.
A. L. Smith, op. cit. (Note ), p. 227.
ibid., p. 138.
ibid., pp. 127f.
H. Bergschicker, Der Zweite Weltkrieg, Berlin (East): Deutscher Militärverlag, 1963, p. 150.
K. Ziesel, Der rote Rufmord, Tübingen: Schlichtenmayer, 1961, pp. 78ff.; cf. U. Walendy, op. cit. (Note ), pp. 3ff.
M. Broszat, Studien zur Geschichte der Konzentrationslager, Stuttgart: Schriftenreihe der Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, No. 21, 1970, pp. 194f.; cf. U. Walendy, HT No. 34, 1988, p. 37.
From a 1979 issue of Quick, cited as per G. Frey, op. cit. (Note ), p. 259, who does not give a precise date.
cf. A. Rückerl, NS-Prozesse, Karlsruhe: C. F. Müller, 1972, pp. 122ff.
cf. N. Frei, Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte (VfZ) 35 (1987): 385-401, here p. 400.
Two further examples of incorrect captions: M. Weber, "The Warsaw Ghetto Boy", JHR 14(2) (1994): 6f.; "Inaccurate Time Magazine Photo Caption Defames Ukrainians", JHR 14(2) (1994): 8.
H. Eschwege (ed.), Kennzeichen 'J', Berlin (East): Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, 1981, p. 185; cf. p. 173.
Der Tod ist ein Meister aus Deutschland, part 3, May 2, 1990; cf. E. Gauss, Vorlesungen Über Zeitgeschichte, Tübingen: Grabert, 1993, pp. 144f.
Published as such in Hamburger Abendblatt, Oct. 21, 1981, p. 4; cf. G. Frey, op. cit. (Note ), p. 258; U. Walendy, HT No. 13, 1982, p. 16.
For the many individual sources, cf. U. Walendy, op. cit. (Note ), p. 68; U. Walendy, HT No. 34, 1988, pp. 38ff.; U. Walendy, HT No. 38, 1989, pp. 31ff.
ibid., pp. 31ff.
E. Varlin, Israel denke daran!, Paris: E. Varlin Edition, 1935; cf. U. Walendy, HT No. 34, 1988, p. 38.
Der Spiegel No. 40, Oct. 10, 1966, p. 101; cf. H. Eschwege, op. cit. (Note ), p. 266.
cf. Welt am Sonntag, Jan. 16, 1994, p. 1.
Ill. a): R. Neumann, Hitler - Aufstieg und Untergang des Dritten Reiches, Munich: Desch, 1961, p. 151; Ill. b): Jüdisches Historisches Institut Warschau [Jewish Historical Institute of Warsaw], Faschismus, Getto, Massenmord, Frankfurt/Main: Röderberg, 1960, p. 42; R. Neumann, H. Koppel, The Pictorial History of the Third Reich, New York: Bantam Books, 1962, p. 148; Ill. c): T. Kotarbinski, Meczenstwo walka, zaglada zydow W Polsce 1939-1945, Warsaw, 1960, Picture No. 38; cf. U. Walendy, op. cit. (Note ), pp. 28f.
R. Schnabel, Macht ohne Moral, Frankfurt/Main: Röderberg, 1957, p. 332.
V. Berdych, Mauthausen, Prague: Nase Vojsko, 1959, Photo Appendix No. 50; cf. U. Walendy, op. cit. (Note ), pp. 36f.
Internationale Föderation der Widerstandskämpfer (ed.), Die SS-Henker und ihre Opfer, Vienna: self-pub., 1965, p. 17; J.-C. Pressac, Auschwitz: Technique and Operation of the Gas Chambers, New York: Beate Klarsfeld Foundation, 1989, pp. 422, 424; J.-C. Pressac, Les Crématoires d'Auschwitz, la Machinerie du meurtre de masse, Paris: Éditions de CNRS, 1993, Doc. 57; G. Schoenberner, Der gelbe Stern, Hamburg: Rütten und Loening, 1960, p. 162.
Photo of May 31, 1944, Ref. No. RG 373 Can D 1508, exp. 3055.
Ill. a): R. Schnabel, op. cit. (Note ), p. 397; Ill. b): H.-A. Jacobsen and H. Dollinger (eds.), Der Zweite Weltkrieg in Bildern und Dokumenten, v. I, Munich: Desch, 1952, p. 100; Der Spiegel No. 51/1966, p. 86; Ill. c): M. Dor, R. Fedemann, Das Gesicht unseres Jahrhunderts, Düsseldorf: Econ, 1960, p. 168; cf. U. Walendy, op. cit. (Note ), pp. 40ff.
Ill. a): Jüdisches Historisches Institut Warschau (ed.), op. cit. (Note ), p. 334; Ill. b): G. Schoenberner, op. cit. (Note ), p. 163; Ill. c): S. Einstein, Eichmann - Chefbuchhalter des Todes, Frankfurt/Main: Röderberg, 1961, p. 202; A. Donat (ed.), The Death Camp Treblinka, New York: Holocaust Library, 1979, pp. 260f.; cf. U. Walendy, op. cit. (Note ), pp. 14ff.
Ill. a): S. Einstein, op. cit. (Note ), p. 200; Ill. b): Der Spiegel No. 53/1966, p. 48; G. Schoenberner, op. cit. (Note ), p. 97; cf. U. Walendy, op. cit. (Note ), pp. 18ff.
Ill. a): R. Schnabel, op. cit. (Note ), p. 244; Ill. b): C. Simonov, The Lublin Extermination Camp, Moscow: Foreign Languages Publication House, 1944, p. 12; cf. U. Walendy, op. cit. (Note ), pp. 70f.
cf. U. Walendy, HT No. 31, 1987, p. 33.
E. Gauss, op. cit. (Note ), p. 21, postulates that the shoes displayed in the Auschwitz Museum had not belonged to inmates, but to the people living in the vicinity, who turned them in there after the War.
B. S. Chamberlin, "Todesmühlen. Ein Versuch zur Massen-'Umerziehung' im besetzten Deutschland 1945-1946", VfZ 29 (1981): 420-436, here p. 432.
Die Unabhängigen Nachrichten No. 11 (1986), p. 11, reports that the Allies had incorporated German photos of the great heaps of dead bodies resulting from the Allied terror-bombing of Dresden into their film Todesmühlen, presenting these pictures as evidence for the mass murder in the concentration camps.
B. S. Chamberlin, op. cit. (Note ), pp. 425f.
International Military Tribunal, Trial of the Major War Criminals, Nuremberg: IMT, 1947, v. XIII, pp. 169ff.
cf. H. Springer, Das Schwert auf der Waage, Heidelberg: Vowinckel, 1953, pp. 178f.; P. Kleist, Aufbruch und Sturz des Dritten Reiches, Göttingen: Schütz, 1968, p. 346; U. Walendy, HT No. 43, 1990, pp. 12ff.
Re. 'Holocaust' cf. T. Ernst, Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte 31(34) (1981): 3-22, and P. Malina, Zeitgeschichte (ZG) (Vienna) 7 (1979/80): 169-191; re. 'Shoah' cf. G. Botz, ZG 14 (1986/87): 259-265; R. Faurisson, JHR 8(1) (1988): 85-92.
cf. M. Broszat, VfZ 27 (1979): 285-298; P. Dusek, ZG 6 (1978/79): 266-273.
From air photos, National Archives, Washington DC, nos.: DT RL 751, Cracow, May 3, 1944; TuGx 895 A SK, exp. 382f., October 1944; J. C. Ball, Schindler's List - Exposed as Lies and Hate, Toronto: Samisdat Publishers, 1994.
T. Keneally, Schindler's Ark, New York: Touchstone, 1982. On the copyright page it states: "This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental."
Film & TV Kameramann No. 2/1994, pp. 24ff., esp. the statement of chief cameraman J. Kaminski, p. 27.
Morale Division, U. S. Strategic Bombing Survey, Medical Branch Report, The Effect of Bombing on Health and Medical Care in Germany, War Department, Washington, 1945, pp. 17, 21, 23. We are grateful to F. P. Berg for providing this reference.
cf. D. Irving, Und Deutschlands Städte starben nicht, Augsburg: Weltbild Verlag, 1989, p. 373.

Do "Documentary" Photographs Prove the National Socialist Extermination of the Jews?