Table of contents:
- 1. An exemplary Nazi camp
- 2. Photo by Tom Wodzinski
- 3. In Murnau am Staffelsee
- 4. Theresienstadt
- 5. American soldiers
- 6. Flight of the German army
- 7. Flight of German troops
- 8. Guard oflag VII-A Murnau
Video: Retro photographs from the "exemplary" Nazi camp during World War II
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Forced labor and deadly conditions are what Nazi POW camps are known for. Nevertheless, Spiegel writes about an archive of photographs from a "model" camp in Germany, where during World War II prisoners put on plays, played sports, spent time in the library and listened to academic lectures behind barbed wire.
1. An exemplary Nazi camp
2. Photo by Tom Wodzinski
The collection of photographs, mysteriously popping up in the south of France, is from a camp in Bavaria that the Nazis advertised to show that they respect human rights. The Polish prisoners in the photographs are dressed up in costumes. Some are dressed in fictional uniforms, hung with impressive medals, mustaches and pince-nez. Others squeezed into women's dresses, dyed their eyelashes, and tucked their hair under blond wigs. They laugh and dance on stage. In the orchestra pit, in front of the scores, other prisoners are sitting, carried away by playing their violins, flutes and trumpets.
3. In Murnau am Staffelsee
The photographs do not quite fit the usual image of the Nazi camp, which is associated with forced labor and mass murder. Indeed, reports of inmates playing in plays, libraries, exhibitions, sporting events, and academic lectures behind barbed wire and prison walls have always sounded implausible. Reasonable skepticism persisted even after the end of the war, as prisoners returned home and talked about the rich cultural life in the POW camp.
4. Theresienstadt
In Germany, most people still know little about the living conditions of the Polish officers held in Oflag. One of the reasons is the language barrier. The memoirs of former Polish prisoners of war, published over the years, usually appeared exclusively in Polish.
5. American soldiers
A completely different story is drawn with these photographs. More than a decade passed before the general public in Murnau learned of the extraordinary collection of photographs found in the south of France documenting in amazing detail the events at Oflag VII-A, at the foot of the Alps, shortly before the end of World War II.
6. Flight of the German army
Of the 12 Nazi POW camps for officers, the highest-ranking prisoners were held in Murnau. Among others were the commander-in-chief of the Polish Navy, Vice-Admiral Jozef Unrug, as well as divisional general Juliusz Rummel, who led the defense of Warsaw in 1939.
7. Flight of German troops
8. Guard oflag VII-A Murnau
“The prisoners were treated well, at least as far as possible under the circumstances,” says Marion Hruska, head of the historical association Murnau. She studied the history of the camp for many years and organized an exhibition dedicated to it. Khrushka says Oflag VII-A Murnau held over 5,000 prisoners and was organized as a "model camp". It was regularly inspected by representatives of the International Red Cross. The historian explains that by doing so, the Nazis intended to show that they adhere to the norms of international law and the Geneva Conventions.
Recommended:
Migration of peoples in the USSR: Why, where and who was deported before World War II, and then during the war
There are pages in history that are rethought and perceived differently in different periods. The history of the deportation of peoples also evokes contradictory feelings and emotions. The Soviet government was often forced to make decisions at a time when the enemy was already trampling on their native land. Many of these decisions are controversial. However, without trying to denigrate the Soviet regime, we will try to figure out what the party leaders were guided by when they made such fateful decisions. And how they solved the issue of deportation to Ev
War has a woman's face: American propaganda during World War II
Fighters for gender justice today do not get tired of declaring that a woman has no place in the kitchen, they say, great achievements await her. It is curious that the desire to raise generations of housewives was not always inherent in the powers that be; during the Second World War, the American government was well aware of the benefits that women's labor could bring, and therefore actively promoted the participation of the beautiful half of humanity in difficult war days. For your attention - some photos illustrating
Moscow metro during the war: during air raids, people gave birth here, listened to lectures and watched a movie
When in the summer of 1941 enemy planes roared over Moscow for the first time, a completely different life began for the inhabitants of the capital. But very soon people got used to the phrase "air raid" and the metro became a second home for many. They showed films, libraries and creative circles for children. At the same time, the metro workers continued to build new tunnels and prepared for a chemical attack. This was the subway in the early 1940s
Unique retro photographs taken during the fighting during the war in Afghanistan
For 10 years of war, Afghanistan passed at least three million people from the post-Soviet space, of which 800 thousand participated in hostilities. This war still resonates with pain not only in Afghan families, but also in the families of all those who had to fulfill their international duty far from their homeland. This review contains the most interesting photos that can tell a lot about those terrible days of the war
The dwarfs Ovitz are Jewish musicians who survived the horrors of the Nazi concentration camp during the Holocaust
The Ovitz family is one of the few Lilliputian families in the world who became famous not only for successfully touring, giving musical concerts, but also miraculously survived in a Nazi camp during the Jewish Holocaust. The head of the family, Shimshon Aizik Ovitz, was a Lilliputian, and in two marriages with healthy women he became the father of ten children, seven of whom were of tiny stature. Many trials fell to the lot of this family, but they were lucky everywhere, they never parted and, perhaps, names