eeriest world war photo, symbol, or place you have visited?

sxt

Is there a photo or a memory of a place you have visited, or a memorial symbol, that sticks out in your mind?

I came upon this picture by accident and it stroke a chord..

jonniebgood1

Excellent thread idea.

The sheer size and Scale of the Birkenau camp. It went as far as could be seen in the mist.

marcsignal

Was Here in 2006.
It was one of the many places that the Me 262 was built in the late stages of the war.
It was destroyed by the Americans in 1947, but we managed to find a way underground into the tunnels, many of which were collapsed.

Approaching complex through forest.


Approaching complex through forest.


Workers footprint in the cement.


Rooftop 2006


Rooftop 1944


Inside on main factory floor


Roof from inside


Roof from inside


1944


1944


Tunnel 1


Tunnel 2


Tunnel 3


Tunnel 4

old hippy

Auschwitz was certainly the most memorable. Initially I really didn't want to go - it was just supposed to be a few relaxing, fun days in Krakow. But I'm grateful we went.

I can't really describe the feeling of that place. You really have to experience it for yourself.

rednik

A few of us were in Berlin a year ago and visited Sachsenhausen concentration camp. The first thing we noticed was the lack of wildlife birds etc in the area. Did a complete tour of the camp and just felt a big cloud over us as we left. How people can deny the holocaust I will never know.

marcsignal

I have some similar ones of Dachau. I was living pretty close to the camp in a place called Karlsfeld in 2007.
I got a book there which I must try to scan some pics and other newspaper articles from. It seems that, pre war, many Germans simply accepted camps like Dachau as a legitimate part of their Prison system.
It was a grim grim place to visit, especially in the winter.
The similarity in building design to Sachsenhausen is very clear in the first few pics.

Main Gate from inside.


Main Gate from outside looking in at camp Compound.


Hanging Posts - As a punishment, Prisoners hands were tied behind their backs, and were raised on these poles by the wrists Like So. Although I believe these particular posts were a post-war addition, as part of the memorial monument built on what was originally the 'Appelplatz' (Main Roll Call Square)


Looking down the main camp compound.
Billets (Now gone) were located in rows behind the trees.


Guard Tower


Gas Chamber. This chamber was never used as a homicidal Gas Chamber.

Crematorium


Crematory Ovens


Crematory Ovens


Crematory Ovens


.

Morlar

I have a stack of these online :

http://www.militaria-archive.com/berlin/index.html

&

http://www.militaria-archive.com/normandy/index.html

&
http://www.militaria-archive.com/France-Memorials/index.html


I would imagine Leningrad/St Petersburg would be fascinating with the right guide and can't wait to see it up close. Personally more interesting to me than Stalingrad.

Notwithstanding expensive trips to Putin-land, I will go with these :

Either here (which was totally deserted the day me and the gf drove up)

Normandy, Utah Beach





This one here is small scale compared to some of the others, I think that it was unexpected when I came across it was what brought it home all the more. Also that the event had been unkown to me up to that point.

Nantes 22 October 1941 Memorial



The backstory to that one is tragic. A communist jewish resistance member from a rival group entered nantes territory and shot a german officer in the back knowing the reprisals would be brutal. They were. 27 (I believe was the final toll) communist prisoners were then taken from the jails and shot. I believe there may also have been a shortfall in numbers (not sure about that and conflicting information on it).

Or. . .. . . . .

St James - Brittany American Cemetery and Memorial

here which was also deserted on a pristine beautiful summers day :







A lot of Irish names in this place, men who died very young and men who died very late in the war and almost made it.

hinault

Standing outside the Olympic Stadium in Berlin was pretty surreal.

The mix of the old design and the new design on the spot where the entire world gathered in 1936 as the Reich was planning to expand.




The Battle scenes from Berlin



And finally a German Chancellor for the first time on French soil, paying respects of Germany to the war dead

Fuinseog

rednik wrote: »

A few of us were in Berlin a year ago and visited Sachsenhausen concentration camp. The first thing we noticed was the lack of wildlife birds etc in the area. Did a complete tour of the camp and just felt a big cloud over us as we left. How people can deny the holocaust I will never know.

a lot of KZ photos. maybe there should be a separate forum for them?
what are those wooden poles and were they really used. There is an infamous grainy (they always are) picture of prisoners hanging off one of them, which turned out to be fake.

Fuinseog

The Battle scenes from Berlin






this photo was doctored and is possibly a fake. the original photo, if one can call it that, showed the soldier wearing three watches, proof of looting.

Fuinseog

marcsignal wrote: »

I have some similar ones of Dachau. I was living pretty close to the camp in a place called Karlsfeld in 2007.
I got a book there which I must try to scan some pics and other newspaper articles from. It seems that, pre war, many Germans simply accepted camps like Dachau as a legitimate part of their Prison system.
It was a grim grim place to visit, especially in the winter.
The similarity in building design to Sachsenhausen is very clear in the first few pics.



.

it was not only Germans who accepted places like Dachau. Pre War Europeans also accepted Concentration Camps or Labour Camps as being the norm, something a lot of people these days do not like to hear.

Dachau was opened for business in 1933 and it created as much of a stir with the outside world as Gauntanamo Bay, which is till involved in torture.

you include the infamous photo of the German torturing prisoners on the wooden poles. In some versions of the photo he is an NCO, yet wears officer's breeches. Uniform experts out there, was this the norm?

citizen_p

Fuinseog wrote: »

The Battle scenes from Berlin






this photo was doctored and is possibly a fake. the original photo, if one can call it that, showed the soldier wearing three watches, proof of looting.

it was staged, it happened earlier but like the flag raising on Iwo jima it was done again, this time for the cameras. and i think i read that the flag carrier was changed to be a Georgian to please stalin.


I seen a site a while ago with alot of the variations of the photo,
1 the watches
2 smoke added in the background
3 a more "patriotic flag" was added

link
not the one mentioned above but still good.

Smoke for final photo

Fuinseog

Hanging Posts - As a punishment, Prisoners hands were tied behind their backs, and were raised on these poles by the wrists Like So. Although I believe these particular posts were a post-war addition, as part of the memorial monument built on what was originally the 'Appelplatz' (Main Roll Call Square)


.[/QUOTE]

lest there be any confusion, I am referring to the photo in the above link 'like so'
apparently this photo was published in Der Spiegel in 1966.
I found the following somewhere on the net:

According to the news magazine Spiegel, the Illustration shows a concentration camp guard with his victims in Buchenwald. The inmates are said to have their hands tied and be hung from trees. I can only urge everyone to try this for himself: go to a gym, suspend yourself from wall bars with your arms up and back, and try to keep your knees bent. I compliment you on your well-toned stomach muscles if you can hold this pose for more than a minute. Incidentally, the string with which the supposed inmates are tied to the trees appears to be amazingly strong. It cannot be rope, as ropes would be thick enough to be visible on a photo. Thus, this would seem to be a photomontage, if not a complete fake, ie. a painting

jonniebgood1

Fuinseog wrote: »

lest there be any confusion, I am referring to the photo in the above link 'like so'
apparently this photo was published in Der Spiegel in 1966.
I found the following somewhere on the net:

According to the news magazine Spiegel, the Illustration shows a concentration camp guard with his victims in Buchenwald. The inmates are said to have their hands tied and be hung from trees. I can only urge everyone to try this for himself: go to a gym, suspend yourself from wall bars with your arms up and back, and try to keep your knees bent. I compliment you on your well-toned stomach muscles if you can hold this pose for more than a minute. Incidentally, the string with which the supposed inmates are tied to the trees appears to be amazingly strong. It cannot be rope, as ropes would be thick enough to be visible on a photo. Thus, this would seem to be a photomontage, if not a complete fake, ie. a painting

I read in a survivors book that the key to surviving this type of punishment was to be completely still for the duration of the hanging or shoulders would dislocate and wrists break. I presume that the hanging posts are museum type replicas of posts that were in Dachau during the war???

jonniebgood1

Some more information on this punishment at Dachau: Original shower room.


Museum today in same room:

In the Museum, visitors see the former shower room where prisoners were allegedly hung by their arms as a punishment. The shower room is on the left in the photo below; the water pipes and shower heads have been removed. Notice the patches at the top of the beams where cross bars used to be. The bars had been removed when the hanging punishment was discontinued at Dachau in 1942, but the locations were uncovered when the building was turned into a Museum.
.
On the right side of the photo (Above in B&W) is a bar across one of the arches. Visitors are shown a chain which was allegedly used to hang prisoners from the bar for punishment.

The hanging punishment was originated by Martin Sommer, an SS officer at Buchenwald. This punishment was abolished at Dachau by Commandant Martin Weiss in 1942. Sommer was dismissed from his job at Buchenwald and sent to the Eastern front after being put on trial in SS judge Dr. Georg Konrad Morgen's court in 1943 for abuse of the prisoners.

This all comes from http://www.scrapbookpages.com/dachauscrapbook/KZDachau/DachauLife01B.html

Fuinseog

jonniebgood1 wrote: »

Some more information on this punishment at Dachau: Original shower room.


Museum today in same room:


This all comes from http://www.scrapbookpages.com/dachauscrapbook/KZDachau/DachauLife01B.html

I thought the shower rooms were gas chambers? it was claimed until the 1960s that people were gassed at Dachau

jonniebgood1

Fuinseog wrote: »

I thought the shower rooms were gas chambers? it was claimed until the 1960s that people were gassed at Dachau

A guide at Dacau said that the gas chambers were not used for mass killings there. Most deaths were due to disease and starvation at Dacau. I recall from looking into a different thread that alot of Russian POW's were taken from Dacau to be used as target practice at a nearby training facility.

Detailed info on the use/ non use of the Gas chambers at Dachau is here http://www.holocaust-history.org/dachau-gas-chambers/

Morlar

Here for purposes of comparison is what the troops in the field had when wounded and evacuated to one of the most lavish medical facilities near the front.

These pictures are from Alexandrowskoje, a very small medical outpost on the Russian front. This is from a Sanitäts-Kompanie 625 - Nowo Alexandrowskoje, Russia 1942:

Shower, Sauna, bath, toilet facilities


De-lousing facilities, 'Entlausug' means de-lousing;



It may be hard to make out but the text here, referring to the top 2 pictures means 'where Fiery elias chased the Louse away' - such was the fear of typhus among the troops :