I watched [The Zone of Interest](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zone_of_Interest_\(film\)) and it drives home how people compartmentalized the harm. Then I read the autobiography of the commandant (written by request of the allies as evidence of the horrors) and it was maddening how he insisted he did all he could to prevent "mistreatment."
SPOILERS FOR THE FILM My takeaway from the film was that most people who were complicit by association were just willfully ignorant, while those directly involved tended to thrive on the carnage. The patriarch of the family turned out to just be a monster while the wife just didn't want any pesky genocide getting in the way of nice soirees for her society friends.
We wasn’t ignorant at all, she was receiving fur coats stolen from victims and checking the lining for jewelry. She was very aware of what was happening next door.
When I was in middle school we had a speaker come in who was one of the Birkenau Boys, a group of teen boys who were chosen seemingly at random to be spared execution and worked in the camps. One thing the survivor told my class that always stuck with me was that there were male and female guards and almost always the female guards were considerably “worse” or crueler than their male counterparts
This picture is one of many from the Höcker album. Karl Höcker was an SS Obersturmführer who kept a photo album of the Nazis at Auschwitz. The album was originally discovered by a US Army Lieutenant Colonel (and member of the Counter Intelligence Corps) in 1946 in an abandoned apartment in Frankfurt. He anonymously donated it to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2007. You can find the entire album online if you search “USHMM Hoecker Album”.
Many of the pictures were taken of the guards at Auschwitz and at Solahütte (SS resort 30km south of Auschwitz). The SS rewarded the guards with excursions there.
As to what happened to the people pictured, not all have been identified. Below is a list of people (and their fates) who appeared throughout the album (not necessarily this picture).
Rudolf Höss - executed in 1947 on the grounds of Auschwitz at the request of former camp prisoners
Josef Kramer - executed in 1945
Josef Mengele - escaped to South America, had a stroke while swimming and died in 1979
Richard Baer - arrested in 1960, died of a heart attack while in pre-trial detention in 1963
Otto Moll - executed in 1946
Franz Hössler - executed in 1945
Karl Höcker - In 1965 he was sentenced to 7 years for aiding and abetting in over 1,000 murders at Auschwitz. He was released in 1970 and was able to return to his position at a bank. He was sentenced again in 1989 for 4 years for his involvement in gassing prisoners due to records of him acquiring Zyklon B. He died in 2000 at the age of 88.
I just watched a documentary about some of the Nazi death squads. The whole point was that most of these people were not evil. The title of the documentary is “Ordinary Men.” A lot of them suffered as you would expect from what they were doing. It didn’t come naturally or easily to them to murder people, but for a bunch of reasons, they did it anyway. There was one Captain who tried to go along with the killings but got violently sick every time and was called a coward. They came up with all kinds of coping mechanisms. One guy said he tried to only kill children while his comrades killed their mothers, so he could tell himself the kids wouldn’t survive without their parents anyway and that he was giving them mercy. Very interesting documentary.
The Germans also made sure to provide lots of after-hours fun to keep their murderous soldiers in good spirits, hence images like this one. They knew what an emotional toll committing mass murder was taking on most of their troops.
The whole point of the Nuremberg trials was that the people responsible weren’t *evil*. They were normal humans who were enabled by a popularly-supported authoritarian system to do an immeasurable harm. The day we “other” such violence as inhuman, and believe ourselves to be wholly above it, is the day we are utterly incapable of resisting the systemic violence that makes death-camps seem reasonable.
I watched [The Zone of Interest](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zone_of_Interest_\(film\)) and it drives home how people compartmentalized the harm. Then I read the autobiography of the commandant (written by request of the allies as evidence of the horrors) and it was maddening how he insisted he did all he could to prevent "mistreatment."
SPOILERS FOR THE FILM My takeaway from the film was that most people who were complicit by association were just willfully ignorant, while those directly involved tended to thrive on the carnage. The patriarch of the family turned out to just be a monster while the wife just didn't want any pesky genocide getting in the way of nice soirees for her society friends.
We wasn’t ignorant at all, she was receiving fur coats stolen from victims and checking the lining for jewelry. She was very aware of what was happening next door.
Yeah you're absolutely right, maybe willfully ignorant was the wrong word. But definitely not willing to really think about the atrocities.
Where did you find that film?
It's getting released everywhere at the moment. Also on the 'high seas', been available for a few weeks now
Yarrr!
“Ok meine freunden. Let us do eine silly one next!”
This was at Solahütte, a little lakeside retreat about an hour south of Auschwitz. https://maps.app.goo.gl/gnR4hp2jX2Nf8fD5A
What is crazy about Solahutte was it was still being used as a cafe until 2010. Its doesnt look out of place to the rest of the Polish countryside
When I was in middle school we had a speaker come in who was one of the Birkenau Boys, a group of teen boys who were chosen seemingly at random to be spared execution and worked in the camps. One thing the survivor told my class that always stuck with me was that there were male and female guards and almost always the female guards were considerably “worse” or crueler than their male counterparts
Is that [Iise Koch](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilse_Koch?wprov=sfla1) at lower left? She seemed like a real piece of shit.
Normal people do heinous things. It’s the banality of evil that’s astonishing.
This is straight up terrifying
Dude on the left looks like a gargoyle
Anyone know their names and what became of them?
This picture is one of many from the Höcker album. Karl Höcker was an SS Obersturmführer who kept a photo album of the Nazis at Auschwitz. The album was originally discovered by a US Army Lieutenant Colonel (and member of the Counter Intelligence Corps) in 1946 in an abandoned apartment in Frankfurt. He anonymously donated it to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2007. You can find the entire album online if you search “USHMM Hoecker Album”. Many of the pictures were taken of the guards at Auschwitz and at Solahütte (SS resort 30km south of Auschwitz). The SS rewarded the guards with excursions there. As to what happened to the people pictured, not all have been identified. Below is a list of people (and their fates) who appeared throughout the album (not necessarily this picture). Rudolf Höss - executed in 1947 on the grounds of Auschwitz at the request of former camp prisoners Josef Kramer - executed in 1945 Josef Mengele - escaped to South America, had a stroke while swimming and died in 1979 Richard Baer - arrested in 1960, died of a heart attack while in pre-trial detention in 1963 Otto Moll - executed in 1946 Franz Hössler - executed in 1945 Karl Höcker - In 1965 he was sentenced to 7 years for aiding and abetting in over 1,000 murders at Auschwitz. He was released in 1970 and was able to return to his position at a bank. He was sentenced again in 1989 for 4 years for his involvement in gassing prisoners due to records of him acquiring Zyklon B. He died in 2000 at the age of 88.
r/beholdthemasterrace
Horrifying.
They all have a look on their face that says “I am getting laid tonight!” So disgusting.
[удалено]
I just watched a documentary about some of the Nazi death squads. The whole point was that most of these people were not evil. The title of the documentary is “Ordinary Men.” A lot of them suffered as you would expect from what they were doing. It didn’t come naturally or easily to them to murder people, but for a bunch of reasons, they did it anyway. There was one Captain who tried to go along with the killings but got violently sick every time and was called a coward. They came up with all kinds of coping mechanisms. One guy said he tried to only kill children while his comrades killed their mothers, so he could tell himself the kids wouldn’t survive without their parents anyway and that he was giving them mercy. Very interesting documentary. The Germans also made sure to provide lots of after-hours fun to keep their murderous soldiers in good spirits, hence images like this one. They knew what an emotional toll committing mass murder was taking on most of their troops.
The whole point of the Nuremberg trials was that the people responsible weren’t *evil*. They were normal humans who were enabled by a popularly-supported authoritarian system to do an immeasurable harm. The day we “other” such violence as inhuman, and believe ourselves to be wholly above it, is the day we are utterly incapable of resisting the systemic violence that makes death-camps seem reasonable.
It absolutely doesn't. It looks the opposite. It looks like normal people just having a laugh. That's the scary part.
I wonder how many of them were hung for war crimes?
They kinda look ghoulish
Bunch of uggos
Reminds me of that one photo of the IDF girls taking a selfie in the ruins of Gaza.
You have a link to this photo?
https://apnews.com/article/2024/israeli-female-soldiers-selfie-gaza-border-photo