TENTOONSTELLING (Exhibition)

Amsterdam: United States Information Service, 1945, original gray paper wrappers, pp.32 including 25 photographs;  Condition: Fine. Light sunning to wrappers, but an exceptional example. Interior is complete and in almost mint condition—remarkable for its age.  15 of the 25 photos are shown in this listing.

Following Germany’s defeat, exhibitions of concentration camp horrors exposed Nazi atrocities to the European public, building crucial support for the upcoming war crimes trials at Nuremberg.

This is the rare catalog for "Exhibition of Photographic Images of German Concentration Camps and Destroyed Arnhem," containing 24 pages of full-page photos plus 8 pages of photo descriptions, with the text in Dutch.  Despite the title, there is nothing referring to the destroyed city of Arnhem, only images from concentration camps with accompanying text. (It is likely that the Arnhem material appeared only in the exhibition itself.)

On April 11th, 1945, U.S. troops from the 6th Armored Division entered Buchenwald concentration camp and took photographs of the prisoners.  On page 10 of this work is the widely discussed photo which includes future Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel.  One of the defining images of the Holocaust, it was taken inside Block 56 by Private H. Miller of the U. S. Army Signal Corps a few weeks before the end of the war.   Wiesel is in the second row of bunks from the bottom, seventh from the left, next to the vertical wooden beam.  Some of the other survivors have also been identified:  Abraham Hipler is in the second row, fourth from the left.  The man on the third bunk from the bottom, third from the left, is Ignacz (Isaac) Berkovicz.  (He has also been identified as Abraham Baruch.)  Michael Nikolas Gruner, originally from Hungary, is pictured on the bottom left corner.  Perry Shulman from Klimitov, Poland is on the top bunk, second from the left, looking up.

Other camps depicted in the photos are Dachau, Ebensee (Austria), and Neunburg vorm Wald (the cemetery and site of a brutal death march massacre in Bavaria).  Because the catalog was printed from the photography files of the U.S. Information Service, it focused strictly on camps liberated by Western Allied troops.

An internet search finds another copy of this work currently for sale, listing for $1740, but inferior in condition to this example.  WorldCat locates just six copies in libraries worldwide, four in The Netherlands and two in the U.S.  The last copy to appear at auction, in 2024, sold for $625.

This listing is intended strictly for collectors of historical and Judaica material.  The seller has no political affiliation, motive, or intent, and offers this item solely for its historical significance.  It is made available exclusively as an opportunity for private collectors or educational institutions to preserve a piece of history.