KZ, Bildbericht aus fünf Konzentrationslagern - a Photographic report from five concentration camps [Germany, 1945]. A rare booklet published at the end of World War II by the U.S. Propaganda Office, Includes 45 hard-to-view photographs taken by the Allies arriving to liberate the camps, revealing for the first time the atrocities that took place in the Buchenwald, Belsen, Nordhausen, Ohrdruf and Gardelegen areas in German territory (next to the photographs are short texts describing the atrocities). The copy of Sgt. Edward Coussens - General Eisenhower's personal bodyguard, who signed his name on the cover.
In the photos: piles of dead bodies, camp survivors in horribly haggard bodies, a local German population forced to bury the bodies still lying on the camp grounds, mass graves with dozens of bodies, remnants of Burnt bodies inside the crematorium, shock on Allied soldiers' faces when exposed to atrocities, And more.
The booklet, written in German, was intended mainly for the Germans themselves, to present to them the atrocities committed by their people, as part of the 're-education' of the German population by the Allies in the Occupied Territories. The introduction states that it turn to every German wherever he is and that: "The booklet contains mainly photographs because the printed word does not have the power to describe the camps. Thousands of Germans living nearby were taken to the camp to see with their own eyes the crimes committed on their behalf, but most of the German population could not be brought to the camps... all Germans should be aware of crimes committed by Their people, within them, and in their name... By this they will understand that the whole world will not forgive the German people for their guilt... ". Among other photos, there is a photograph of the famous Holocaust survivor Eli Wiesel, while he was in the Buchenwald camp, which was taken by soldier Miller. At the end of the booklet are photographs of General Eisenhower, as a witness to the atrocities in the Ohrdruf camp.
The photographs appearing in the booklet before us were used as evidence in the Nuremberg trials.
The booklet was distributed in an unorganized manner at the time during the chaos of the end of the war, so copies of it did not reach the civilian population and hence its rarity.
[29] p. 27 cm. Slight tear in the lower right corner of the cover. Other than that good condition.
