"The Auschwitz Album" is the only surviving visual evidence of the process of mass murder at Auschwitz-Birkenau, with the exception of the killing itself.
The 193 photos in the 56-page book were taken in May or June 1944, either by Ernst Hofmann or by Bernhard Walter, two SS men whose task was to take ID photos and fingerprints of the inmates (not of the Jews who were sent to the gas chambers).
According to Yad Vashem, the purpose of the album is unclear. It was not intended for propaganda and is assumed to have been prepared as an official reference for a higher authority, as were photo albums from other concentration camps.
Lilly Jacob-Zelmanovic Meier, who was in possession of the book, donated it to Yad Vashem in 1980.
טעינו? נתקן! אם מצאתם טעות בכתבה, נשמח שתשתפו אותנו