An aerial reconnaissance photograph of the Auschwitz concentration camp showing Auschwitz II (Birkenau).

Photograph | Photograph Number: 03996

Date: 1944 May 31
Locale: Auschwitz, [Upper Silesia] Poland
Variant Locale: Brzezinka
Birkenau
Auschwitz III
Monowitz
Auschwitz II
Photo Designation: KILLING CENTERS -- Auschwitz -- WARTIME -- Aerial Photographs -- 31 May 1944
Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration, College Park

Event History: One of a series of aerial photographs taken by Allied reconnaissance units under the command of the 15th U.S. Army Air Force during missions dating between April 4, 1944 and January 14, 1945. The photos were used to plan bombing raids, determine the accuracy of bombing sorties, or make damage assessments. A typical sortie employed two cameras equipped with lenses of different focal lengths.

After the war the Auschwitz reconnaissance photographs were stored in the archives of the Defense Intelligence Agency (Washington, D.C.) until they were rediscovered in 1978 by two CIA photo analysts, Dino Brugioni and Robert Poirer. The photographs were later declassified and transferred to the National Archives, where they became RG 373. A selection of images were enlarged and annotated with identifying labels by the CIA in 1978.

See https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10008041.
See Also https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005189.
See Also "Auschwitz Main Camp" in Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, Volume 1 Part A.
Keyword: AUSCHWITZ
BIRKENAU
CONCENTRATION CAMPS
KILLING CENTERS
PHOTOGRAPHS (AERIAL)
RECONNAISSANCE
VIEWS
Photo Source: National Archives and Records Administration, College Park

Copyright: Public Domain

Source Record ID: 373-Aerial Photographs--D1508-3056
: Record last modified: 2002-01-07 00:00:00
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa28521

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