A Nazi soldier's photo album - The first documentation of the Nazis' arrival at Auschwitz - Capturing Jews for ...

A Nazi soldier's photo album - The first documentation of the Nazis' arrival at Auschwitz - Capturing Jews for forced labor - August 26, 1939 - Extremely rare

Private photo album of a German soldier who was drafted into the German army on August 26, 1939, about a month before the Nazi invasion of Poland, documenting with his camera the capture of Polish fortifications, the taking over of Polish towns by Nazi soldiers, the first stages of the persecution of Jews in Poland - Jews who were forced into slave labor, rare photographs of the capture of the town of Oświęcim, the preparation of the Auschwitz extermination camp site using forced Jewish labor, mass graves of murdered Poles killed by the Nazis with the capture of the Auschwitz area, and more. Before us is a rare and unknown documentation of the first moments when the Nazi soldiers arrived in the town of Oświęcim and of the first groups of Jews who were caught for forced labor of woodcutting and transporting them.

The album contains 122 photographs mounted on its pages. The photographs are all described in the body of the album and they appear in chronological order. The first photographs document "my military service from August 26, 1939" - the day of his conscription into the German army, followed by photographs of Nazi conscripts in Vienna alongside trains carrying them to the front, the Nazi soldiers arrive in Myslovice in southern Poland, followed by photographs showing the Nazi soldiers in Krakow, the destruction of Polish combat aircraft, and the capture of the territory of several towns in Poland.

The second part of the album is the most significant and horrifying. It features previously unknown photographs of the first groups of Jews captured by the Nazis in the Krakow area, forced into labor. The photos show Jews in full Eastern European attire, both young and old, holding shovels as they cut trees in a forest clearing, with Nazi soldiers beside them. In one photograph, a Jewish forced laborer stands next to a Nazi soldier smoking a cigarette, smiling directly at the camera. This photo series is labeled in German: "Juden bei Zwangsarbeit" - "Jews at Forced Labor." Following this series, there are images of the Wehrmacht in the Jewish market in Krakow, the ruins of Krakow, and the Nazi capture of Polish fortifications. Next, a group of photographs documents the entry of German forces into the town of Oświęcim, about 50 kilometers west of Krakow. These photos depict the blowing up of bridges and the preparation of the area for what would become the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp. At this stage of the war, the area of Oświęcim was designated as "Lebensraum" as part of the immediate measures for the "Aryanization" of the region. Initially, the Nazis aimed to resettle ethnic Germans in the place of the fleeing Poles.

These photographs before us are among the earliest images of SS soldiers occupying the area and the beginning of the preparations for a site where about 1.2 million people, including around 1.1 million Jews, would be murdered - Auschwitz death camp. The photos show trucks transporting SS soldiers to the Auschwitz site, documented with labels such as "Gesprengte Brücke in Oswiecim" - "Blown-up Bridge in Oświęcim". At this stage, the Nazis executed around 15,000 members of the Polish intelligentsia in the area, killed according to a pre-prepared list. One photograph is described as "poln. Massengrab in Rajsko" - "Polish Mass Grave in Rajsko" (Rajsko was essentially a village in the administrative district of Oświęcim, about 7 km southwest of Oświęcim and 55 km west of Krakow's regional capital).

Alongside these images, there are photos of German soldiers closing in on the area in trucks, with the caption: "Razzia in Gefangenen - Lager zu Oswiecim" - "Auschwitz, Raid on Prisoners". This photo series also shows Jews at forced labor and Jewish children staring out the window at the Nazi soldier's camera. The final photos in the album depict Nazi soldiers enjoying leisure time in the mountainous area near the conquered towns.

Album: 35x24 cm. The album contains a total of 122 photographs mounted on its pages. Various Sizes: most photographs 12x9 cm. Some are larger or smaller. Original cover with the embossing of the date and place: "Krakow September 26, 1939" (the album was completed about a month after the photographs appearing in the album were taken). Magnificent wooden cover decorated with flowers and an image of a typical view of Krakow. Very good condition.