Description:

THE BOMBING OF AUSCHWITZ III - MONOWITZ
A most historic wartime photograph, 10" x 10" b/w, taken from an American bomber during a raid on I.G. Farben''s "Buna Werke" rubber plant at Oswiecim, Poland. The aerial image, oriented looking west to east, shows the Vistula River meandering along the left edge, with rail lines visible following its course. To the south of the river, filling the bottom-right corner of the image, can be seen the entirety of the "Buna Werke" facility, with its large power plant close to the center of the frame, and with its administration and barracks area marking the western edge of the plant. Numerous plumes of smoke are visible throughout the scene, some a result of bombing but many likely produced by smoke generators designed to obscure targets from aerial attack. Most interestingly, the Auschwitz III concentration camp, also known as Monowitz, can be seen clearly immediately above the plant, just above and to the right of the center of the frame. This was one of the three main camps in the Auschwitz system, along with Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II - Birkenau. At its peak, Monowitz held approximately 11,000 prisoners, mostly Jews, who were used as slave labor at the "Buna Werke" plant. Just to the east of the Monowitz camp, and beneath it in the photograph, can be seen the E715 prison camp, which held British prisoners of war captured at Dunkirk and in North Africa. The photograph shows several notations executed on the negative, including the location "Oswiecim O/R, Poland", and the date "12-26", indicating that this photograph was taken on December 26, 1944, during the last of four American bombing raids against the "Buna Werke". It is printed on light semi-matte paper, of the type used to rapidly reproduce reconnaissance photos such as this for quick dissemination. The photo shows a few creases, else very good. The Monowitz concentration camp would be evacuated in January of 1945, with its prisoners forced to march to the Gleiwitz subcamp near the Czech border. It is estimated that more than 10,000 prisoners died while serving as forced labor for I.G. Farben.

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December 19, 2017 10:00 AM EST
Elkton, MD, US

Alexander Historical Auctions LLC

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$100 $499 $20
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$1,000 $1,999 $100
$2,000 $4,999 $250
$5,000 $9,999 $500
$10,000 $19,999 $1,000
$20,000 $49,999 $2,500
$50,000 $99,999 $5,000
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