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The Nazi Concentration Camps in International Context: Comparisons and Connections

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Rewriting German History

Abstract

Flicking through the weekly issue of Life magazine on 7 May 1945 — which appeared on the same day that Colonel-General Alfred Jodl, representing the ruined Third Reich, signed the initial military surrender that signalled the end of the Second World War in Europe — readers saw a photo spread many would never forget. Amid reports about baseball and ballet, and advertisements for underwear and perfume, there appeared a dozen explicit photos from recently liberated concentration camps: emaciated survivors in Buchenwald, mountains of decaying bodies in Bergen-Belsen, charred corpses in Gardelegen.1

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Notes

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© 2015 Nikolaus Wachsmann

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Wachsmann, N. (2015). The Nazi Concentration Camps in International Context: Comparisons and Connections. In: Rüger, J., Wachsmann, N. (eds) Rewriting German History. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137347794_17

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137347794_17

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

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