The 72nd anniversary of the establishment of the Warsaw ghetto, in October 1940, is being commemorated this month, and rare, newly released color photographs from ghettos around Poland, published on the website Life.com, provide a unique glimpse into the daily lives of the Jews during the years 1939-1940. The photos depicting the Warsaw and Kutno ghettos are the work of high-ranking Nazi photographer Hugo Jaeger, who had rare access to the upper echelon of the Third Reich, including Adolf Hitler. At the time, the Nazi regime supplied Jaeger with the most cutting edge technology, including a camera that was capable of taking color and three-dimensional photos. Jaeger was described as "Hitler's photographer" by Life Magazine, which purchased his collection of 2,000 photos in the 1970s. Life.com describes how in 1945, while Allied armies were advancing into Germany, Jaeger found himself face to face with American soldiers in a town west of Munich. He had hidden his photograph slides in a leather satchel. Jaeger, according to Life.com, recounted his fear that the photos would reveal his close connection to Hitler and the Nazi leadership, but said the Americans were more focused on a bottle of brandy and a tiny ivory gambling toy that were also in his bag. The soldiers never noticed the incriminating photographs. Following his encounter with the Americans and fearing arrest and confiscation of his archive, Jaeger buried the photos in a number of jars on the outskirts of town. He drew a map that would eventually lead him back to the photos. In 1955 Jaeger dug up the collection and transferred it to a bank in Switzerland, where it was kept in a safe. A decade later he sold the photos to Life Magazine.
