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(CONCENTRATION CAMP LIBERATION PHOTOGRAPHS): Important grouping of thirteen original black and wh...

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:600.00 - 800.00 USD
(CONCENTRATION CAMP LIBERATION PHOTOGRAPHS): Important grouping of thirteen original black and wh...
(CONCENTRATION CAMP LIBERATION PHOTOGRAPHS): Important grouping of thirteen original black and white photographs taken by an American soldier circa early April, 1945 showing scenes from the first populated Nazi concentration camp liberated by American forces. The Ohrdruf camp, part of the Buchenwald camp system near Weimar, was discovered accidentally by members of Patton's Third Army performing reconnaissance on April 3, 1945. The following day American soldiers entered the camp to investigate, finding piles of corpses and emaciated inmates. The camp was established in 1944 to house 1000 inmates who were forced to dig tunnels for a bunker for Hitler and his staff. The photographs, each measuring about 4 1/2" x 3 1/2", many with notation on the verso, depict the horror these soldiers witnessed including bodies littered around the camp grounds with soldiers standing by, stacked corpses in a shed, an exhumed mass grave site, a hastily built cremation pyre as well as a view of the camp perimeter including one of the guard towers. Most of the prisoners in the camp were forcibly marched to Buchenwald in advance of Allied forces. The remaining prisoners were shot or hung. Generals Eisenhower, Patton and Bradley personally visited the camp on April 12, 1945 to bring attention to the Nazi horrors that Allied forces were beginning encounter on an almost daily basis. A few minor creases, otherwise very good to fine condition. $600-800