Figure 1.--Here are two survivors of the NAZI Holocaust. We believe that this is Soviet newsreel footage of the liberation of Auschwitz. The moving photograph shows who we thought was a young boy with an adult survivor. We assume the child s Jewish, but do not know this for sure. Shockingly Auschwitz was not one of the five death camps (Belzec, Chelmo, Maly Trostenets, Sorbibor, and Treblinka), although there was a unit there for killing Jews--Berekenau. Children and most adults at the Death camps were killed within hours after the transports arrived. A few camps held small numbers of Jewish families that the NAZIs preceived as having value for a variety of reasons, primarily to be ransomed. There were medical experiments conducted on Jews at Auschwitz. The most horendous on twin Jewsish children. A readers has found some of the details. "I have found out today a couple of things. The camp is Auschwitz--Burkenau. That was the killing unit at Auschwitz. A Soviet cameraman filmed the scene. The woman is Yugoslavian. Her name is known but I could not hear it properly. The child is Czechoslovakian. We at first thought the child was a boy. It seems the child is a girl. Her name was Katarena Verv." We have, however been unable to find information about her. Source: Soviet newsreel footage.

Here are two survivors of the NAZI Holocaust. We believe that this is Soviet newsreel footage of the liberation of Auschwitz. The moving photograph shows a young boy with an adult survivor. We assume the boy is Jewish, but do not know this for sure. Shockingly Auschwitz was not one of the five death camps (Belzec, Chelmo, Maly Trostenets, Sorbibor, and Treblinka), although there was a unit there for killing Jews. Children and most adults at the Death camps were killed within hours after the transports arrived. A few camps held small numbers of Jewish families that the NAZIs preceived as having value for a variety of reasons, primarily to be ransomed. There were medical experiments conducted on Jews at Auschwitz. The most horendous on twin Jewish children.

German Evacuation (October 1944- January 1945)

As the Red Army approached, the SS ordered the 'evacuation' of Auschwitz. Himmler ordered SS-Obergruppenführer Ernst-Heinrich Schmauser to oversee the evacuation. He was known for extensively using Jewish slave labor. The SS with the srunning success of te Red Army's Operation Bagration and destrction of Army Group Center began the tansfer of 130,000 prisoners at Auschwitz-Birkenau to camps further west (October26, 19444). [Longerich, p. 415.] The Red Army moved close enough that the SS command in Berlin ordered the complete evacuation. Himmler personally ordered Schmauser who was the ranking commander in Silesia to 'expedite' the removal of the still surviving camp inmates. Schmauser was not sure just what Himmler wanted done and exactly how to handle the evacuation. He telephoned a close associate, SS-Obergruppenführer Oswald Pohl, who told him precisely what Himmler wanted done. Pohl told him that Himmler wanted no 'healthy' prisoners left alive in the camp. [Blatman, pp. 79-80.] Apparently Himmler wanted to eliminate any inmate who coild testify as to just what the SS had done at the Auschwitz-Birkenau killing operation. The result was that 56,000 prisoners were forced marched westwards in harsh winter conditions without winter clothing, food or water. Healty does not accurately escribe the codition of the inmates. The surviving inmates who were in poor condition because of the starvation regime at the camp. The selection was basically for those who were still capable of walking. Higher Police Headquarters (HSSPF Breslau) and Schmauser did what they could in chaotic comditions to make sure ensured to the best of his ability that healty inmates who make the best witnesses would end up in the hands of the Soviets. Himmler seems to have not wanted the Soviets to find piles of dead bodies either. Sick people could be explained away. It would have been more difficult to explain 50,000-60,000 recently shot bodies. Inmates too sick to march out of the camp were abandoned. [Blatman, pp. 81-84.] Once the gurds left the camp with the healthier inmates on what was esentially a death march, the shooting began. The guards shot those who failed to keep up the pace or who fell out. Apparently it was decided tht bodies spread out alone the way would not draw unwanted attention. It is believed that about 25 percent of theinmates were sot. The death march wound its way to the Groß-Rosen concentration camp in Lower Silesia. Here they were transported further west into the Reich. [Longerich, p. 415.] Schmauser ordered the killing of the remaining inmates in uschwitz-Birenau (January 20, 1945). A SS unit still in the ca,p shot 200 Jewish women and then blew up the buildings where crematoria I and II were located. The SS than shot 700 more inmates from Auschwitz-Birkenau and other sub-camps. The Red Army 1st Ukrainian Front of the Red Army reached the camp (January 27, 1945). They found some 8,000 inmates still arrived. escaped death because the remaining SS units had fled as the Red Army arrived. [Rees, p. 352.] Schmauser himself lso headed west by car. He encountered some German troops near Altenrode. They warned him that Red Army tnk spearheads were breking through in the area. Schmauser apparently in a hirry ignored their warning and continued on (Februry 10, 1945). [Schulz and Zinke] That was the last known sighting of him. It is assumed that he was killed by Red Army soldiers. It is unclear of he was shot immediately or was captured and shot subsequently. Mny of the surviving inmates wound up in Bergen-Belsen.

Newsreel Footage

A HBC contributor writes, "This is a still from newsreel footage. It was filmed by Soviet newsreel photographers with the Red Army liberated Auschwitz on or about January 25, 1945). The piece I saw was included in a German language documentary about World War II and Hitler. What happens in the news reel is this. First we see the camera showing a building. There are several emaciated dead bodies lying outside of the building. Then a door opens and out walks a tallish woman followed by what looks like an 8-year old little curly haird boy dressed in white cloths and seems very well presented. I think that the next scene would have been the close up of him as shown here. Unfortunately I do not recall the nariation. The film would have been shot without sound. The program then cut to someone giving an unrelated personal account."

Location

This was from a Soviet newsreel when the Red Army liberated Auschwitz (January 1945). One film archivist tells us, "I have shown the photo you sent through to one of my colleagues who identified the location as Auschwitz, so it was probably filmed by a cameraman of the Soviet Army during the liberation. We have this footage in our collection too." [Reicher] Auschwitz was a very large camp. I believe that it was the largest in the NAZI system. We do not know just where in the camp this photograph was taken.

Camp Operation

Shockingly, Auschwitz was not one of the five death camps (Belzec, Chelmo, Maly Trostenets, Sorbibor, and Treblinka). These camps were specifically created for one purpose--to kill jews. Children and most adults at the Death camps were killed within hours after the transports arrived. The situation was more varied at other camps, although children were commonly killed upon arrival. Auschwitz was created as a slave labor work camp. There was a unit to kill Jews--Berkenau (Auschwitz II). Here there was a selection. Healthy adult Jews were selected out for work, Conditions were such, however, that there health would decline so that they would die within months.

Individuals

Here are two survivors of the NAZI Holocaust. They are two prisons at Auschwitz photographed after the Camp was liberated. The moving photograph shows a young boy with an adult survivor. This pale boy seems to be about 8 or 9 years old. It is hard to know whether the adult with him is a relative or not. We thought at first that the boy was Jewish, but we do not know that for a fact. We do not know his name or his story. As far as we know, Holocaust film experts have not identified either the child or the woman with him. One archivist tells us, "We have not identified the boy you cited in the Auschwitz liberation footage." [Levy] Apparently the Soviets did not record who people where when they liberated NAZI concentration camps. The Western Allies when they liberated the NAZI camps did get the details of many of the survivors. Thus we may never know just who this boy was.

Clothing

One of the questions we have about the photograp is why the child is dressed so lightly, almost for summer, and the woman so heavily. A reader writes, "Although very emaciated, this boy seems to have been a fairly recent internee. He still wears fairly decent clothes--although rather skimpy for what apparently was a chilly day. He has a white shirt, short trousers, and tan long stockings. Notice that his head has not been shaved. This in itself is unusual. This suggests that these people may not be Jewish, but rather people seized as part of German anti-partisan operations in the western Soviet Union. These people were often not isdsued camp uniforms or even registered officially at the camps where they were untenened.

Recent Arrival

One of our readers believes that the child here is a recent arrival. We are not so sure about this, The NAZI concentration camp system was so extensive and the experiences so varied that we would never say that this was impossible. We think, however, that it is unlikely. We know that this is a liberation image, thus it must have been taken in 1945. Just when in 1945 we are not sure. But by 1945 the British and Americans had rather much chewed up the German railway system, so arrivals of transports had ceased. The last were the Hungarian Jews, but they ended July 1944. The last transports from the West were in August 1944, eight before the Allies reached Paris and then moved into the Lowlands. There were movements between camps. As the Red Army neared Auschwitz, the SS began to carry out Himmler's order to leave no one in the camp alive. They shot individuals to weak to march west. The survivors were then force marched in the dead of winter to ca,ps in the West. This boy would have never survived this. Some prisoners managed to hide in the camp when the NAZIs began rounding them up. We assume that thse two successfully hid. One Holocaust expert tells us that the number of survivors the Soviets found suggest that the SS guards at the camp for reasons unknown spared some of the inmates. [Black]

Special Categories

A few camps held small numbers of Jewish families or children that the NAZIs preceived as having value for a variety of reasons, primarily to be ransomed. We suspect that is why this boy survived. These Jews were not only spared for a time, but they received better treatment in terms of food. Thus we think it is likely that this boy in 1945 was not a new arrival. Rather I think that it is more likely an "exchange" Jew, one of the children used for medical experiments, or some other special category. Our HBC contributor thinks he may have beeb a new revival. We just do not have any actual information on him at this time.

NAZI Anti-Partisan Operations

There is a tendency to ssume that all the people in these concentration ca,mp images are Jews. This is a mistake, Because the NAZIs murdered so many Jews, many of the individuals in their systems were non-Jews. Quote a number of the children that the Soviets found in Auschwitz were not Jews, but children taken in anti-prtisan operaions the Germans conducted in the Western Soviet Union. The German and associated units involved in the operations would often taze a village and murder all the inhabitants. At the commander's discression some people, such as the children and women, might be spared. They were commonly transported to camps and detention facilities in occupied children. Thus there were Polish, Beylorussian, and Ukranian children at many camps, including Auschwitz. This may be the case of the boy seen here.
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Sources

Black, Peter. Senior Historian. U.S. National Historical Museum. E-mail, May 23, 2008.

Blatman, Daniel. The Death Marches: The Final Phase of Nazi Genocide (2011).

Longerich, Peter. Holocaust: The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews (2010).

Levy, Bruce. Project Coordinator. Steven Spielberg Film and Video Archive. E-mail message, May 19, 2008.

Rees, Laurence. Auschwitz: Geschichte eines Verbrechens.

Reicher, Corinna. Photograph and Film Archivist. Imperial War Museum (IWM). E-mail nessage, May 14, 2008.

Schulz, Andreas, and Dieter Zinke. Deutschlands Generale und Admirale. (Teil V /Band 5). Die Generale der Waffen-SS und der Polizei, 1933-1945 (Schlake - Turner: 2011).

Created: 5:39 PM 4/8/2008
Last updated: 3:35 AM 1/11/2016