An undertaker views a layer of corpses laid out at the bottom of a mass grave in the Okopowa Street cemetery.

Photograph | Photograph Number: 32165

Photographer: Heinrich Joest
Date: 1941 September 19
Locale: Warsaw, Poland
Variant Locale: Warszawa
Varshava
Warschau
Photo Designation: GHETTOS (MAJOR) -- WARSAW (Poland) -- Death/Burial -- Cemeteries/Mass Graves/Funerals
Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Guenther Schwarberg

Biography: Heinrich Joest, German army sergeant during World War II who photographed the Warsaw ghetto. Jost was in his early forties, the owner of a hotel in Langenlonsheim, when he was called to serve in the German army during World War II. On September 19,1941, his birthday, Joest was stationed in Warsaw. On that day he decided to take his Rolleiflex camera into the ghetto because he wanted "to see what went on behind the ghetto walls." Once inside, Joest shot 140 images of every aspect of ghetto life and death. He kept the images to himself until 1982 when he met Guenther Schwarberg, a reporter for "Der Stern" magazine, who interviewed him and facilitated the publication of some of his images in 1988.
Keyword: BURIAL
CEMETERIES
CORPSES
GHETTO/OCCUPATION
JEWS (POLISH)
MASS GRAVES
WARSAW
Photo Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Copyright: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Provenance: Guenther Schwarberg

Source Record ID: Collections: 2004.1.123

Second Record ID: Collections: 2004.1.1
: Record last modified: 2004-05-10 00:00:00
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1151994

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