Neal Jackson challenges the authenticity of the Soviet photo of corpses used to illustrate stories about Auschwitz, Sunday, September 6, 2009
A puzzling photo, claimed to be proof of Auschwitz "Barbarism"
HAVING seen thousands of autopsied corpses in my time, I'm certain that the three corpses in the top of the picture have the tell-tale signs of post-autopsy examination closure stitching, from neck to pubis. (One obverse corpse, to the left, does not look to have been autopsied.)
If my observations are correct I cannot comprehend why, within the context of an extermination camp, an executed person would be subject to a forensic postmortem examination and then be stitched closed. I would have though the corpses would simply be dumped for burial/cremation.
Were these unfortunates perhaps found in a mortuary and decapitated for effect before being photographed? The corpses also shown signs of hypostasis suggesting they have been moved from one place to another before being photographed.
I have seen photographs and film footage of mass decapitations of Chinese, executed by Japanese soldiers; the heads are usually spattered with blood.
There is a lot about this picture which is just wrong.
Postscript, Friday, September 11, 2009: "I saw the piece on the origins of the photograph this morning. I had written the following on the 8th., but thought you might consider me a bit morbid if I sent it. Anyway, neither the photograph nor my eyes deceived me:
"Having previously worked in the area of forensic pathology it suddenly struck me that none of those cadavers' wrists have been tied. Of course a beheading can be carried out without restraining the victim, but from examples I have seen it is quite unusual. Apart from nobility who are said to have been free to raise their hands to signify readiness, I thought it invariably necessary to contain the condemned. Under National Socialism beheading was a relatively common method of capital punishment though usually preferred for political or serious criminal activities.
"Additionally, these two severed heads below have what appear to show closure stitching of the scalp; which is cut across the top of the head from ear to ear to detach the cranium and remove the brain for autopsy dissection. Another sign that these could have been cadavers previously used for anatomical research or merely requiring a post-mortem examination to establish cause of death. Another thing is that with a couple of exceptions they look predominantly to have been strong, healthy and relatively young men. Perhaps partisans."
Note: El Mundo used the same photo (above) in 2005, revealing its source to be the former Soviet Union: It is definitely not at Auschwitz. People were not beheaded there, cruel though the camp was. Notice how the heads are all face upwards where they've been tossed. Did the heads wriggle round that way themselves?
Neal Jackson also wrote: Neal Jackson is curious about the placard used on partisans about to be executed in Minsk