A Czech scientist and Wendell Birmingham, an American soldier, examining a shrunken head in Buchenwald after liberation.

Photograph | Digitized | Photograph Number: 45081

Overview

Caption: A Czech scientist and Wendell Birmingham, an American soldier, examining a shrunken head in Buchenwald after liberation.

The Czech was a former prisoner who was forced to dissect cadavers in Buchenwald. The head is of an executed Pole, which, on the instructions of the SS, had been shrunken according to the method used by the Jivaro Indians of Ecuador. Visible behind them are pieces of tanned, tattooed human skin and organs, all stored in the pathology laboratory where the SS forced staff workers to dissect the bodies of dead prisoners and make a collection of abnormalities.
Date: 1945 April 11 - 1945 May 01
Locale: Buchenwald, [Thuringia] Germany
Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration, College Park

Photo Source: National Archives and Records Administration, College Park

Copyright: Public Domain

Source Record ID: 208-AA-206H-3
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Copyright: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Provenance: Ruth Sherman

Keyword: ARTIFACTS BUCHENWALD CONCENTRATION CAMPS CZECHS EVIDENCE HUMAN REMAINS INSPECTIONS PHOTOGRAPHS (SIGNAL CORPS) SHRUNKEN HEADS SOLDIERS/MILITARY (AMERICAN) SURVIVORS WAR CRIMINALS/TRIALS
Photo Designation: MAJOR CONCENTRATION CAMPS 1940-45 -- Buchenwald -- LIBERATION -- Artifacts/Prisoners' Property