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F. Carter Dreves writes on Saturday, May 1, 2010: "The photo is one taken by Soviets at the Danzig Anatomical Institute after liberation of the city. Several other photos exist. Persons were Poles who had been guillotined. Possibly the heads and bodies were transferred there by the Soviets because this was an outstanding propaganda opportunity. Danzig was the site of the [alleged] "soap experiments" and this is one of the associated photos. The Soviets rearranged the heads and bodies for subsequent photos. These photos were used at the Nuremberg Trials by the Soviet prosecution." A Polish expert historian, in Krakow, confirms (Thursday, September 10, 2009) that the "Auschwitz atrocity photo" used to attack Mr Irving was not taken in Auschwitz, but was a month after the war at an anatomical institute in Danzig The official photo caption in the Israeli archive reads: "Camp inmates' severed heads and dismembered body parts, in the Anatomical Institute in Wrzeszcz [Danzig-Langfuhr]. Photographed in 1945. Note: this institute carried out experiments to produce soap from human fat. The bodies of inmates were supplied by the Stutthof camp." [Enlarge] [Source] [Israeli archive catalogue entry]. "Auschwitz corpses" photo was faked, actually taken in Danzig in June 1945 THE PHOTO is in the Israeli archives of Beit Lohamei Haghetaot, the Ghetto Fighters' House [located in "Galilee" between Acre and Nahariya], as Photo No. 12,322. You can download it from there. Go to the BLH website, but using only Internet Explorer 5.5, as with Firefox it comes to a dead end [the page also freezes with Safari and Netscape and IE for Mac]; click on the link ARCHIVES, and then on SIMPLE SEARCH and enter the word HEADS. You will find a lot of hits -- including this very photo. According to its caption it was taken in 1945 in the Anatomical Institute of the Medical Academy in Danzig's Langfuhr suburb [today Wrzeszcz in Poland]. Of course, the corpses are said in the caption to be of "camp inmates" and used for soap manufacture. For myself, I am pretty sure that the corpses had been taken out of the morgue and stacked in the institute's courtyard ready for burial. The photograph was probably taken by Nachman Sonneberg, who was photographing in Danzig during June 1945, and whose photographs are also located in the BLH archive. This was the time when corpses and body parts taken from the institute were in fact buried at the nearby cemetery. What about the many detached heads? In the latter years of the war the institute was mainly provided with the corpses of prisoners who had been guillotined, from the jails at Danzig, Elbing, and Königsberg. The heads were also removed from other torsos, and for two reasons: first, the dead bodies were thus "dehumanised" which made it mentally easier for students doing dissections. And then again, parallel to these students of general medicine, the dental students had heads to work on, which was the only part they needed. For more data on the "Danzig Soap Factory" see German Studies Review, XXI/1, pages 63 to 86. [Name withheld by agreement] --- Thursday, September 10, 2009 Sehr geehrter Herr Irving, ich schreibe auf Deutsch, weil es am schnellsten für mich geht und ich weiß, dass Sie gut Deutsch können. Das Foto findet sich im Archiv von Beit Lohamei Haghetaot, the Ghetto Fighters' House [located in "Galilee" between Acre and Nahariya] unter Nr. 12322. Sie können es sich von dort herunterladen - gehen Sie auf die Website von B.L.H. - nur mit Internet Explorer 5.5, mit Firefox kommen Sie nicht weiter - von dort auf das Link "Archives," geben Sie bei "simple search" ein "heads". Sie bekommen viele hits, unter anderem auch dieses Bild. Es wurde laut caption 1945 im Anatomischen Institut der Medizinischen Akademie Danzig in Langfuhr (polnisch Wrzeszcz) aufgenommen. Natürlich sind die Leichen angeblich von "camp inmates" und wurden zur Seifenfabrikation benutzt, siehe caption. Ich bin mir sicher, dass die Leichen samt Köpfen aus dem Leichenkeller herausgeholt und im Innenhof des Instituts gelagert wurden, um sie zu begraben. Die Aufnahme hat vermutlich Nachman Sonneberg gemacht, der im Juni 1945 in Danzig fotografierte und dessen Bilder sich in B.L.H. befinden. Zu derselben Zeit wurden auch die Leichen und Leichenteile aus dem Institut auf den nahe gelegenen Friedhof begraben. Woher die vielen Köpfe? Das Institut erhielt in den letzten Kriegsjahren vorwiegend Leichen von mit einer Guillotine Hingerichteten, aus den Zuchthäusern von Danzig, Elbing und Königsberg. Auch anderen Leichen wurden die Köpfe abgetrennt. Das hatte zwei Gründe: Zum einen war der tote Körper "entpersonalisiert," was den Studenten das Sezieren psychisch leichter machte. Zum anderen konnten parallel zu den Studenten der allgemeinen Medizin die Studenten der Zahnmedizin arbeiten, die ja nur den Kopf benötigten. Sollten Sie an der "Danziger Seifenfabrik" näher interessiert sein: German Studies Review XXIX/1, pp. 63-86. Mit freundlichen Grüßen, [Name withheld by agreement]
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