Couldn’t sleep last night, so I caught up on my magazine reading. Came across an article in this week’s New Yorker about a newly discovered photo album from Auschwitz. The photos show members of the SS relaxing and joking around — taking a break from sending people to the gas chambers.

I can’t find the article online, but there’s a short photo slideshow on the New Yorker’s website.

I read another story about this album in the New York Times a few months back. They’ve got a lengthier audio slideshow on their website, featuring an interview with Rebecca Erbelding, an archivist at the Holocaust Memorial Museum.

3:30 a.m. is definitely the time to ponder these incredibly disturbing images. The phrase “banality of evil” doesn’t even scratch the surface.

This article appears in Mar 12-18, 2008.

Got something to say?

Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!

Seven Days’ deputy publisher and co-owner Cathy Resmer is a writer, editor and advocate for local journalism. She works in the paper’s Burlington office and lives vicariously through the reporters while raising money to pay them. Cathy started at...