From the Oct. 25, 2012, Chicago Tribune "Auschwitz prisoner who took photographs for Mengele" by Vanessa Gera.
WILHELM BRASSE (1917-2012)
Was one of several prisoner photographers in Auschwitz taking various photographs in the infamous concentration camp. Wilhelm Brasse of Poland was sent there early in the war and put to work documenting fellow prisoners, a job that tormented him long after the war. Died Oct. 23.
Born in Poland in 1917, and although not Jewish, was arrested at age 22 as a political prisoner while trying to escape out of German-occupied country in the spring of 1940. His experience working in a photo studio before the war landed him the job at the camp.
It literally saved his life as he got better treatment, food and was kept cleaner so as not to offend the SS men he worked with.
He took about 40,000 to 50,000 identity photos used by the Nazis to register prisoners, part of their obsession with documenting their work. He also took photographs of the inhuman experiments of Nazi Josef Mengele.
With the war ending and Soviet forces approaching, he was ordered to destroy the photographs, but he and the others refused and managed to save about 40,000. After the war, he was active in setting up the Auschwitz museum and educating people about the Holocaust.
The USS North Carolina (BB-55) My all-time favorite warship. As an elementary school student in North Carolina, I donated nickels and dimes to save this ship back in the early sixties.
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