"Death photographer" who documented the horrors of Auschwitz passed away

Yesterday at the age of 95 Brasa passed away, Wilhelm Brasa, a prisoner in Auschwitz became the camp photographer and documented the horrors of Josef Mengele. A spokesman for the Auschwitz - Birkenau Museum provided notification of the death of Brasa, at his home in his native town Zibitz in southern Poland.

Brasa, who was Jewish, worked as a photographer in the south. His father was Austrian and his mother Polish. After the German army invaded Poland in 1939, he refused to express his loyalty to the new regime and joined the Polish army.

A year later, in August 1940, he tried to escape to Hungary, was captured and sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau. He became prisoner number 3444. After six months he was commander of the camp, Rudolf Hoess appointed him official photographer of the camp.

The main task of Brasa was to photograph the new prisoners who had come to the camp for their cards.

He also documented the atrocities committed in the practice of the so-called "Death Doctor ", Josef Mengele, where appalling experiments were held out on Jewish prisoners. When the Soviet Red Army approached Auschwitz, Brasa received an order to destroy all the negatives, but he ignored them and saved tens of thousands of valuable photographs documenting shocking scenes.

Brasa returned home in Poland, married and had two children. He said he considered photography work again, but the sights he documented in Auschwitz continued to haunt him, and he could not return to his profession. Instead, he started a business making sausages.

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!