The Photo Album of SS-Obersturmführer Karl Höcker

• The Slapster
  September 23rd, 2007 at 1:06 pm

  That’s chilling, to look at a picture like that, or some of the others like th elounge chair group, that could very well be any other vacation or happy group of people. Then to realize the abject nightmare they’re in the center of, with no regard to the suffering & destruction all around them. Just plain disturbing really.

• L.B. Jeffries
  September 23rd, 2007 at 1:10 pm

  Wow, now I know what people in third world countries think when they watch American television.

• L.B. Jeffries
  September 23rd, 2007 at 1:13 pm

  Okay, maybe that was a bit over the top…

• L
  September 23rd, 2007 at 2:17 pm

  Abu Ghraib photos, anyone? At least these folks weren’t posing with their victims.

  How soon people forget…

• Jennifer
  September 23rd, 2007 at 2:37 pm

  To ‘L’

  Are you saying that Abu Ghraib was worse then what happened at Auschwitz?

• Ali S.
  September 23rd, 2007 at 3:06 pm

  I believe that any abuse of human life and rights is always condemnable. No matter when it happened or where.

• Akiro
  September 23rd, 2007 at 3:35 pm

  I just think its interesting the majority of people view those SS officers who worked at the camps as gouls and completely inhuman, but when we see this one is forced to see that they were human, and also could be happy at times.

  Just interesting to see the other side I suppose.

• Dave
  September 23rd, 2007 at 4:37 pm

  Under that veneer of maniacal sadism, they are just plain folks.

  Or is it the other way round… A veneer of plain folk covering a core of maniacal sadism?

  I remember reading something written by one of the guys who testified at the Nuremberg Trials; when he first saw one of the Nazi defendants he was struck by the realization that if circumstances were changed, he could be capable of the same wickedness.

• Kct
  September 23rd, 2007 at 5:24 pm

  Nice photo. Perfect light and excellent frame.
  The ww2 was really amusing.

• Rob
  September 23rd, 2007 at 6:39 pm

  In a similar vein to some of the comments, I like what the Rotten Library has to to say:

  “The mistake often made in describing the crimes and actions of the Third Reich is to somehow dehumanize them, turn all the players into demons and monsters, the same techniques used by the Nazis themselves to target and exterminate Jews and other undesirables. To dehumanize Nazis is to turn them into archetypes as opposed to functioning humans; it sets us up to be “surprised” again when traits of the Nazis show up elsewhere, in other places, at a lessened level but with the same misguided goals and logic behind them.”

• ted
  September 23rd, 2007 at 10:08 pm

  Not a very exciting collection of photos.
  I suppose we’re meant to feel some sort of disgust.

  I would say Auschwitz is a pretty extreme example of a “human rights violation”. To trivialize it as such shows a lack of understanding and human compassion.

  The funny thing about when people kill their spouses, or are found to be serial killers, is the neighbours always say, “but he/she was such a nice person.” They’re always surprised. The fact is you can be a “nice” person and still do horrible things, or turn a blind eye to atrocities.

• physco219
  September 30th, 2007 at 11:52 am

  Just goes to show you that people are people. Hell even the Jewish people celebrated birthdays and such during the oppression even when many of them knew their fellow neighbors, friends, relatives and such were being tortured, butchered, and killed. Perhaps this was their only way of release for all the sadness they must not only have seen and possibly participated in, but in some ways they too were coerced into. Dave I love what you said “I remember reading something written by one of the guys who testified at the Nuremberg Trials; when he first saw one of the Nazi defendants he was struck by the realization that if circumstances were changed, he could be capable of the same wickedness.” So well put, and my point exactly. Thank you.

• major
  November 9th, 2007 at 2:04 am

  Previous comments comparing the monstrosity of the the Nazi extermination camps to Abu Grabe is total B_____t!!! People saying that, are communist propagandists or the useful idiots of same

  How do you compare Abu Grabe (underwear on heads) to the beheading of helpless Americans on video by terrorists…

  Then also say that Abu Grabe was on the scale of Auschwitz where over 2.5 million people were mass exterminated…

  Whats mesmerizing about these photos is that the indiviudals could be normal individuals in any other setting but somehow the consummate evil of Nazism turned them into monsters for all history

  I cant stop staring at their faces and wondering is that really all of us at some other time and in some other place,or is there really something about them in particular such that they would always be the monsters they are…

  Evil may be dormant in each of us waiting to be unleashed by the wrong sequence of life events…

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