This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/17/2022
[WORLD WAR II]. -- [HOLOCAUST]. -- [THERESIENSTADT]. A group of 26 photographs depicting inmates and survivors. 1940s. Silver print photographs depicting malnourished survivors and prisoners of war at the Theresienstadt concentration camp receiving medical care from the Red Cross, the Red Army, and the United States Army. 3 x 4 ½”. All photographs stamped “Unlit” in Ukrainian with additional stamps and markings on verso. Neatly organized in plastic sleeves. The Theresienstadt concentration camp was a key component in Nazi efforts to downplay the horrors of the Holocaust. Populated by high profile Jewish intellectuals, artists, composers, and writers, the camp was heavily promoted by the Third Reich as proof that those individuals being deported to concentration camps were well cared for. Concerns of what truly went on behind the walls of these camps continued to grow, and so in 1944 Adolf Eichmann hosted representatives of the Red Cross and the Danish government at Theresienstadt in an effort to quell rumors of mistreatment. Fake shops, schools, libraries, and hospitals were built within its walls, barracks were repainted, and hundreds of inmates were deported to Auschwitz to minimize any appearance of overcrowding. Delegates were only allowed to walk predetermined paths and only inmates who had been screened by Nazi officers beforehand were allowed to speak to them. The Red Cross arrived at Theresienstadt on May 2, 1945, and six days later the Red Army liberated the camp. Theresienstadt was the only concentration camp to be liberated with a significant number of survivors, and the photographs taken in the months afterwards paint a grim picture of what life was like in the “cultured” concentration camp.