It's documented that there was a general prohibition on taking photographs by the German personnel. You can see this for example in the "Operation Reinhard secrecy oath". Not all rules are followed though: that's why the Treblinka commandant has a photo album detailing his service.
Concerning the Einsatz Reinhard camps, SS personnel were required to sign
this secrecy pledge; note item 4 - "that there is an absolute prohibition on photography in the camps of 'Einsatz Reinhard'." Jim Rizoli's notion that the Germans permitted thorough documentation of their deeds in photographs is quaint but ill-informed.
In the occupied East, various prohibitions were put in place to bar German soldiers and police officers photographing atrocities. For example, as early as 22 July 1941 Chief of General Staff Woehler laid down to the 11th Army Command that restrictions were to be put in place (“for any normal human being . . . no photographs will be made of abominable excesses, and no report of them will be given in letters home”; such photos should be prohibited and “confiscated together with the negatives” as affronts to “decency and discipline”); Struk in Photographing the Holocaust cites two orders of Heydrich (11 November 1941 and 16 April 1942) forbidding “the taking of pictures at mass executions” and requesting that commanders of Order Police search for contraband photos amongst the men of their units. Thus, some of the orders were issued by individual commands of the Wehrmacht, others were more general police orders. Also, from an article by Jurgen Matthaus: "On July 11, 1941, possibly in reaction to the earlier killings by Order Police units in Białystok, Montua transmitted an order from HSSPF Bach-Zelewski for all Jews aged 17 to 45 'convicted' of plunder to be shot. To prevent the emergence of “places of pilgrimage” (Wallfahrtsorte), the units had to carry out the executions clandestinely. No photographs or onlookers were allowed." Montua's order read in part: “I forbid photographing and the permitting of spectators at the executions.”(quoted in Ordinary Men, pp 13-14)
Despite the orders, according to Struk, “Reinhard Wiener said that he had no problems filming at Liepaja. The ban, ‘confined to the shootings which took place in the east,’ was not, he said, imposed unit the end of 1941.” (Wiener was a German Kriegsmarine who shot the iconic footage of the trench execution in July 1941 to which I linked in a post last week.) - more below
hat said, the others have told you that there are photographs of things other than gassing.
The Taubner case has already been mentioned. It is interesting that Taubner was aware of the prohibition he was breaking. The Taubner verdict (1943, concerning events which took place in August-October 1941) mentions as common knowledge that Taubner "knew that the photographing of such incidents [executions] was not permitted." (Klee, p 199) Further, the verdict states, "The accused claims not to have known that he was not permitted to take pictures of executions he carried out. The accused however cannot be believed in this matter. Right from the time he served in the Luftwaffe the accused has known that photographs may not be taken of official procedures, since these are viewed as 'secret.' . . . Witness Fritsch drew his attention to the fact that, as he understood it, the taking of such photographs was forbidden." The verdict doesn't mention a Himmler order - and not Heydrich's order (these coming after the time of Taubner's actions); Taubner commanded an SS workshop in the 1 SS Infantry Brigade so would not have been subject to an order for Army Group South. The verdict implies a general knowledge that photographs of official business, including executions, were not to be taken - under a general order for secrecy rather than under a specific order against photographing in the east. Taubner was found guilty in taking and sharing "photograph of the incidents" on the ground of "disobedience. Such pictures could pose the gravest risks to the security of the Reich if they fell into the wrong hands. . . . The accused was also aware of this considerable danger." The judgment underscored that the photography, including an image of "a Jewish woman who was almost completely naked," was "tasteless and shameless" considering that "the taking of such photographs is forbidden."
Rules were not observed always and everywhere, as the Taubner case showed. Struk tells us that cameras proliferated among the troops sent East, in addition to the photography equipment sent east with Propaganda Companies attached to Wehrmacht divisions. Klee's book includes background on photos taken at Ponary. Here is another angle on Germans breaking the prohibition on taking "atrocity photographs," the postwar testimony of witnesses to actions in Lithuania:
Yehuda Barill, on the action in Ziezmariai, second half of August 1941: “According to the local peasants in the area, the Lithuanians [sic] murderers did the shooting and the Germans took photographs.”
Dvora Gus, interviewed on mass murder of 30 September 1941 targeting Jews of Onuskis: “The Germans stood near the pit as the Jews were being shot; they did not do the shooting, but filmed everything.”
Leyb Zibberg, relating what he'd heard about the murder of Jews in Pilviskiai, 15 September 1941: “The local Lithuanian Antanas Adomaitis told Leyb [Zibberg] that it was Lithuanians who had shot the women and children. The Germans had stood near the pit and continuously photographed.”
Mendel Davidson, concerning mass shooting of 26 August 1941 outside the town of Zarasai, on the Kaunas-Daugavpils highway in eastern Lithuania:
“At the very moment that the men were being shot, a low-flying plane appeared and circled the area several times. Word spread that the Germans were taking photographs.”
Ursula Urbanaityte, on the murders of women and children at Vilkaviskis, 6 July 1941: “Cvirkuviene also told then that the shooters were all Lithuanians - partisans, policemen and members of the Riflemen’s Club. The Germans stood at a distance, filming. There were about five Germans there, but they didn’t shoot. The shooting was done with machine guns and rifles.”
Testimony from a Lithuanian, Matilda Kirgelite Kulikauskiene, on Virbalis, shooting of 26 August 1941: “After the women and children were killed . . . Navickas supervised the sale of bloodied possessions at cheap prices. . . . There were no Germans present during the shooting; they just drove up in a car and filmed everything that the Lithuanians did.” (p 200)
Quotations from Bankier, Expulsion and Extermination: Holocaust Testimonials from Provincial Lithuania, pp 115, 122, 137, 139, 160, 200
Thus, the shootings were not systematically or thoroughly documented but some photographs were taken and some of those survive - an elementary concept that Jim Rizoli and HDenier either cannot grasp or don't want to.
There are lots of photos showing mass shooting, for example. You have yet to address any of them.
Apparently he'd rather repeat that none have been shown or that not every massacre and every body was photographed.
Among the images of German atrocities shown in this thread recently have been moving and still images of two mass shootings at Liepaja in Latvia: Klee's book also has information on Liepaja, also mentioned above. The piece in Klee (pp 126-135) correlates with
an interview given by Wiener, the German soldier who shot the movie of the summer executions at Liepaja. Testimony from interpreter Fahrbach: "All of these early executions took place in the area to the south of the lighthouse. Later the execution area was moved to the north of the port among some dunes" (Wiener wasn't present for the later massacre). The boatman Vandrey said that soldiers turned up under orders, explaining that numerous Wehrmacht soldiers ("over a hundred men" he recalled at one particular action) attended the executions "as spectators." The scene in Wiener's film indeed shows a very public action with many spectators, many in uniform, some of them eager to watch. Another witness, Rosenstock, commander of 2nd Company Reserve Police Battalion, described the scenario including the detail that "The execution area was visited by scores of German spectators from the Navy and the Reichsbahn." Schulz's testimony stated, "I must mention that apart from me there were also other members of the Wehrmacht (army and navy) watching the execution." These testimonies refer to the July-August shootings, one of which Wiener filmed. A letter of 3 January 1942, from Kugler, the Liepaja SS and Police Chief, to the commander of the Riga Ordnungspolizei noted that, among the "constantly expressed" complaints of locals about the executions of the Jews, "a rumour is abroad that the execution was filmed in order to have material to use against the Latvian Schutzmannschaft.
