Impression on film by Werner Rudolf Breslauer has become part of UNESCO historical archive.

Dutch newspaper – province of Drenthe
Camp Westerbork, the film

The Photography of Rudolf Werner Breslauer

From Yad Vashem’s online photo archive comes another haunting image of life – for some- in the Westerbork concentration camp in Holland. Pictured above is the camp Commandant Gemmeker lighting the candles on a Christmas tree for the officers. The ability of the camp administrators and guards to adhere to societal norms and traditions provides us with insight into the nature of the human behaviour of the perpetrators.  How the perpetrators of the Holocaust could celebrate Christmas traditions while overseeing the incarceration and deportation of Jews is haunting.

Yad Vashem’s description of this archival photograph states that Rudolf Werner Breslauer – a Jewish inmate-, enjoyed good relations with camp commandant Gemmeker, prepared this album, probably in early 1943. It depicts different scenes from the comp and its surrounding area: daily life in the camp, deportations, forced labor, Christmas feast of the SS staff, private life of Gemmeker and his mistress etc.Visit their website for a complete viewing of this album.  

UNESCO Memory of the World Register

<< NEVER AGAIN >>

0 0 votes
Article Rating