SS OFFICERS ENJOYING THEMSELVES AT THE DEATH CAMPS IN POLAND

Sickening smiles of the SS: Rare photos give glimpse into how Hitler's murderous death camp guards had beer-fuelled parties and accordion sing-alongs on Polish site where 200,000 Jews were slaughtered

 

Daily Mail 

March 5, 2021

 

The rare photographs are revealed in the recently-published book Hitler's Death Camps in Occupied Poland, written by military historian Ian Baxter and published by Pen & Sword.

Among them is a shot taken at Chelmno death camp of two SS officers seen smiling with their arms draped around each other (top left). Chelmno was set up 1941 and around 200,000 Jewish people were killed there. Also seen at Chelmno are guards swigging from bottles (bottom right). 

At Sobibor death camp, where a further 200,000 people were murdered, SS official Heinrich Unverhau is seen playing an accordion (top right, centre) while standing with other officers. Another image (bottom left) shows Sobibor commandant Franz Reichleitner (third from left) enjoying a drink with other SS members. 

 

Members of the SS (Schutzstaffel) were responsible for running the network of concentration and extermination camps which existed across occupied Poland. The extermination camps were partly where an estimated six million Jews were slaughtered in the Holocaust between 1941 and 1945.