FÛL'R PIETES In order to know, we must imagine

for ourselves.'We must attempt to

ÛF F¡LM imagine the hell that Auschwitz
was in the summer of ry44. Let
st\tATffijËD us not invoke the unimaginable.
Let us not shelter ourselves by
FRtM !-iil-T_ saying that we cannot, that we
could not by any means, imagine
it to the very end.W e are obliged to
that oppressive imaginable. It is a
response that we must offer, as a debt to the words and images
that certain prisoners snatched, for us, from the harrowing Real
of their experience. So let us not invoke the unimaginable. How
much harder was it for the prisoners to rip from the camps those
few shreds of which now we are trustees, charged with sustain-
ing them simply by looking at them. Those shreds are at the same -1
time more precious and less comforting than all possible works of /
art, snatched as they were from a world bent on their impossibil-
ity. Thus, images in spite of all: in spite of the hell of Auschwitz; '
in spite of the risks taken. In return, we must contemplate them,
take them on, and try to comprehend them. Images in spite of alll
in spite of our own inability to look at them as they deserve; in
spite of our own world, full, almost choked, with imaginary com-
modities.

tl
Of all the prisoners in Auschwitz, those whose possible testi
mony the SS wanted to eradicate at any cost were, of course, the
members of the Sonderkommando. This was the "special squad" of
prisoners who operated the mass extermination with their bare
hands. The SS knew in advance that a single word from a surviving

til
 7
At[
I rule es ril sPITE oF
member ofth e Sonderkommando would quash any denials, any sub-
sequent cavils with respect to the massacre ofthe EuropeanJews't
"Cãnceiving and organizing the squads was National Socialism's
most demonic crime," writes Primo Levi. "One is stunned by this
paroxysm of perfidy and of hate: it must be the Jews who put the
that the Jews [. . .] bow to any
Jews in the orrens; it must be shown
humiliation, even to destroying themselves-"'
The first Sonderkomma.ndo atAuschwitz was created on July 4,
1942, during the "selection" of a convoy of SlovakianJews for the
gas chamber. Twelve squads succeeded each other from that date;
each was eliminated at the end of a few months, and "as its initia-
tion, the next squad burnt the corpses of its predecessors."3 Part of
the horror for these men was that their entire existence , including
the ineluctable gassing of the squad, was to be kept in absolute
secrecy. The members ofthe Sond.erkommando couldtherefore have
no contact whatsoever with the other prisoners, and even less with
whatever "outside world" there was, not even with the "nonini-
tiated" SS, those who were ignorant of the exact functioning of
the gas chambers and the crematoria.a When sick, these prisoners,
kept in solitary confinement, were denied admission to the camp
hospital. They were held in total subservience and mindlessness-
they were not denied alcohol-in their work at the crematoria'
What exactly was their work? It must be repeated: to handle
the death oftheir fellows by the thousands. To witness all the last
moments. To be forced to lie to the very end. (A member of the
Sonderkommandowhohad attempted to warn the victims of their
fate was thrown alive into the cremetorium fire, and his fellows
were forced to attend the execution).s To recognize one's o'tiln
and to say nothing. To watch men' women, and children enter
the gas chamber. To listen to the cries, the banging, the death
throes. To wait. Then, to receive all at once the "indescribable hu-
man heap"-a "column of basalt" made of human flesh, of their
flesh, our own flesh-that collapsed when the doors were opened'
To drag the bodies one by one, to undress them (until the Nazis
thought of the changing room). To hose away all of the accumu-
lateðblood, body fluids, and pus. To extract gold teeth for the
spoils of the ReicÍt.To Put the bodies in the furnaces of the cre-
FouR PTECES 0F FttM SÌ{ATCHE0 FnoM HErr ]
matoria. To maintain this inhuman routine. To feed coal to the
fires. To extract the human ashes from that "formless, incandes-
cent and whitish matter which flowed in rivulets [and] took on
a grryish tint when it cooled." To grind the bones, the final resis-
tance of the wretched bodies to their industrial destruction. To
pile it all up, to throw it into a neighboring river or use it as fill for
the road being constructed near the camp. To walk on t5o square
meters ofhuman hair, which fifteen prisoners are busy carding on
large tables. To occasionally repaint the changing room; to erecr
hedges-for camouflage; to dig supplementary incineration pits
for exceptional gassings. To clean, to repair the giant ovens ofthe
crematoria. To start over each da¡ constantly threatened by the
SS. To survive in this menner for an indeterminate time, drunk,
working day and night, "running like the possessed in order to
finishmore quickly."ó
"They had no human figure. They were ravaged, mad faces," said
the prisoners who were able to see them.7 They survived, however,
for the time left to them, in the ignominy ofthe job. To a prisoner
who asked him how he could stand work of that kind, a member
of the squad replied: "Of course, I could throw myself onto the
electrical wires, like so many ofmy friends, but I want to live [. . .].
In our work, ifyou don't go mad the first da¡ you get used to it."8
In a manner ofspeaking. Yet some who thought themselves "used
to it" simply threw themselves into the fire .
Ifthis kind of survival surpasses any moral iudgment (as Primo
Levi wrote)e or any tragic conflict (as Giorgio Agamben com-
mented),to then what could the verb to resist mean in such con-
straints? To revolt? That was a dignified way of commitring sui-
cide, of anticipating a promised elimination. At the end of r94z,
a first proiected rebellion failed. Then, in the great mutiny of Oc-
tober r944-when, at least, crematorium fV was set abl¿z_e and
destroyed-not one of the 45o members implicated survived, of
whom "only" 3oo $¡ere due to be gassed soon in any case.lr
At the core ofthis fundamental despaia the "impulse ro resist"
probably abandoned them, condemned as theywere to die, leav-
ing them to concentrate rather on signals to be emittedbeyond the
borders of the camp: "We, the prisoners olthe Sonderkommando,
 I rmlers ril sPrTE oF
kept thinking about how we might make known to the world the
details ofthe gruesome crimes which were perpetuated here."t2 So
in April 1944, Filip Müller patiently gathered some documents a the massacre ofthe Jews: the moment when those who assisted, stu-
plan ofcrematoria fV and V a note on their operation, a list ofthe
- pefied, had room left for neither thought nor imagination. Time,
Nazis on duty as well as a Zyklon B label-and passed them along
to two prisoners who were attempting escape.t3 Such an attempt,
as all ofthe Sonderkommandol<¡ew,was hopeless. This is why they
sometimes confided their testimonies to the earth. Digs under-
taken around the borders ofthe Auschwitz crematoria have since
brought to light-often long after the Liberation-the devastat-
ing, barely legible writings of these slaves of death.ta Bottles cast
into tbe eartÍt as it were , except that the writers did not always have
bottles in which to preserve their message. At best, a tin bowl.ls
These writings are haunted by rwo complementery constraints.
First, there is the ineluctable obliteration of the witness himself;
"The SS often tell us that they won't let a single witness survive."
But then there was the fear that the testimony itself would be
obliterated, even if it \il'ere trensmitted to the outside; for did it
not risk being incomprehensible, being considered senseless, un-
imaginable? "'What exactly happened," as Zalmen Lewental con-
fided'to the scrap of paper that he was preparing to bury in the
ground, "no other human being can imagine."l6
t'
I
, and the door hinges oiled [. . .]. Newgrates were fiæed in the
.,1
t spection and repair, as did the electric fans. The walls ofthe
\
One summer day inry44,the members of the Sonderkommando felt
the perilous need to snatch some photographs from their infernal
work that would bear witness to the specific horror and extent
ofthe massacre. The need to snatch some photographs from the
real.Moreover, since an image is made to be looked at by others,
to snatch from human thought in general, thought from "outside ,"
something imøginøble that no one until then had even conceived
as possible-and this is already saying a lot, since the whole thing
was planned before being put into practice.
Att F0uR PTECES 0F Flrrrt SilATGHE0 Fn0il HEt []
It troubling that a desire to snatcb an image should materialize
is
at the most indescribable momenq as it is often characterized, of
space, gaze, thought, pathos-everything was obfuscated by the
machinelike enormity of the violence produced. In the summer
of tg44camethe "tidal wave" of HungarianJews:435,ooo ofrhem
were deported to Auschwitz between May 15 and July g.r7
Jean-
Claude Pressac (whose scientific scrupulousness generally avoids
any adjectives or eny emparheric phrases) wrote that this was rhe
"most demented episode of Birkenau," carried out essentially in
crematoria II, III, and V.r8 In a single ðay, z4,ooo HungarianJews
were exterminated. Toward the end of the summer, there was
a shortage oÍZyk7onB. So "the unfit from the convoys
[i.e., the
victims selected for immediate death] were casr directþ into the
burning pits ofcrematorium V and of bunker z,"re in otherwords,
burned alive. As for the g¡rpsies, they began to be gassed en masse
fromAugustr.
As usual, the members of the Sonderkommando posted at the
crematoria had to prepere the entire infrastructure ofthis night;
mare. Filip Müller remembers how they proceeded to "overhaul
the crematoria":
Cracks in the brickwork ofthe ovens were filledwith a special
fireproofclay paste; rhe casr-iron doors were painted black
generators, while the six chimneys underwenr a thorough in-
four changing rooms and the eight gas chambers were given
a fresh coat ofpaint. Cù'ite obviously all these efforts were in-
tended to putthe places ofexrermination into peak condition
to guarantee smooth and continuous operation."zo
Above all, on the orders of HøuptscÍtarfiÍtrn OæoMoll-a partic-
ularly feared and hated SS officer who had taken personal charge
of the liquidation of the Sonilerkommøndo fromrg4z onzt-frve
incineration pits were to be dug in the open air, behind cremero-
rium V. Filip Mäller has described in detail the technical experi-
 I rulers ril sPrrE oF Arr
mentation and the management of the site led by MolL from the
conception ofgutters to collect the fat, to the concrete slab on
which the "workers" would have to pulverize the bones mixed
with the human ashes;22 to the elevated hedgerows forming a
screen to make all of this invisible from the exrerior (fig. r). It is
significant that, apart from far-offaerial views, not one single view
exists ofcrematorium V-situated in a copse of birch trees, from
whichBirkenaugets its name-thatis not obscured by some plant
barrierz3 (fig.r).
To snatch an image from that hell? It
seemed doubly impos-
sible. It was impossible by default, since the detail of the installa-
tions was concealed, sometimes underground. But also, outside
of their work under the strict control ofthe SS, members of the
Sonderkomntando were carefully confined in a "subterranean and
isolated cell."2a It was impossible by excess, since the vision of this
monstrous, complex chain seemed to exceed any attempt to docu-
ment it. Filip Müller wrote thar "in comparison with what fOtto
Moll] had imagined and what he had begun ro underrake, Danre's
Hell was only child's play"Ss
As-it began to groïv light, the fire was lit in ¡wo of the pits
in which about z,5oo dead bodies lay piled one on top of
the other. Two hours later all that could be discerned in the
white-hot flames were countless charred and scorched shapes
[. . .]. While in the crematorium ovens, once the corpses were
thoroughly alight, it was possible to maintain a lasting red
heat with the help of fans, in the pits the fire would burn as
long as the air could circulate freely in between the bodies.
As the heap of bodies settled, no air was able to get in from
outside. This meant that we stokers had constantly to pour
oil or wood alcohol on the burning corpses, in addition to
human fat, large quantities of which had collected and was
boiling in the trvo collecting pans on either side ofthe pit. The
sizzlingfat was scooped out with buckets on a long curved
rod and poured all over the pit causing flames to leap up amid
much crackling and hissing. Dense smoke and fumes rose in-
cessantþ The air reeked ofoil, fat, ben/ole and burnt flesh.
F0uR ptEcEs 0F FtrM silATCltED FRoM flEtr ]
During the day-shift there were, on average, r4o prisoners
working in and round crematoria fV and V. Some twenry_five
bearers were employed in clearing the gas chamber and re_
moving the corpses to the pits [. . .].
The SS guards on their watch-rowers beyond the barbed
wire which encircled the area around the pits . .] were badly
[.
upser byúe ghoulish specacle [. . .]. Under the ever_increasing
heat a few of the dead began to stir, writhing as though witf,
some unbearable pain, arms and legs straining in slow Ãotion,
and even their bodies straightening up a little . .]. Eventu_
[.
ally the fi¡e became so fierce that the corpses were enveloped
by flames. Blisters which had formed on rheir skin burst ãne
by one. Almost every corpse was covered with black scorch
marks and glistened as if it had been greased. The searing
heat had burst open their bellies: rhere was the violent hiss_
ing and sputtering offrying in great heat . .]. The process of
[.
incineration took five to six hours. what was left baiely filed
a third of the pit. The shiny whitish-gray surface *",
it .*o
with countless skulls [. . .]. As soon es the ashes had cooled
down a little, wooden metal-covered boards were thrown
into the pit. Prisoners ofthe ash team climbed down and be_
gan to shovel our rhe still hot ashes. Although their miftens
and berets gave them some make-shift protection, hot ashes
kept blowing down on them, especially when it was wind¡
causing severe facial burns and eye iniuries, somerimes even
blindness, so thar after a short time they were issued with pro_
tective goggles.
Once the pits had been emptied and the ashes taken to the
ash depot, the{' were piled up in man-high heaps.26
tl
To snatch an image from that, in spite ofthat? yes. Whatever the
..9Ìl: frtT had to be given ro rhis unimaginable reality. The pos_
sibilities for escape or ofrevolt were so limited at Ausihwi rrlth^,
the mere sending of an image or ofinformation-a plan, numbers,
names-was ofthe utmost urgenc¡ one ofthe last gestures ofhu_
 I rmle rs ril sPrÌE oF
manity. Some prisoners had managed to listen to the BBC in the
offices they were cleaning. Others managed to send calls for help.
"The isolation of the outside world was part of the psychological
pressure exercised on the prisoners," ¡ilrote Hermann Langbein.
"Among the efforts to defend oneselffrom the psychic terrorism,
there were obviously those that sought to break the isolation. For
the morale of the prisoners, this last factor increased in impor-
tance year by year as the military situation unfolded."'7 On their
side, the leaders of the Polish Resistance were in 1944 demand-
ing photographs. According to a witness's account collected by
Langbein, a civilian worker managed to smuggle in a camera and
Figure r. Anonymous (German). Hedge for camouflage at
crematorium V of Auschwie¿, 1943-1944. Oswiecin,
Auschwie-Birkenau State Museum (negatiïe no. 86o).
Âtt FouR prEcEs 0r FtrM st¡ATcHE0 FR0M HErr ] 11
get it into the hands ofthe members olthe Sonderkommøndo.2}The
camera probably contained only a small piece of blank film.
For the shooting, a collective lookout had to be organized. The
roof of crematorium V was deliberately damaged so that certain
squad members \Mere sent by the SS to repair it. From up there,
David Szmulewski could be on watch: he observed rhose-nota-
bly the guards in nearby observation posts-who were charged
with overseeing the work of the Sonderkommando.Hiddenatthe
bottom of a bucker, the camera got into the hands of a Greek Jew
called Alex, still unidentified toda¡ for we do not know his fam-
ily name. He was positioned on the lower level, in front of the
incineration pits, where he was supposed to work with the other
members ofthe squad.
The terrible paradox of this darkroom was rhat in order to re-
move the cemera from the bucket, adjust the viewfinder, bring it
close to his face, and take a firsr sequence of images (figs. 3-a),
Figurez. Anonymous (German). Crematorium V ofAuschwitz, r
94J-Lg44.
Oswiecim, Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum (negative no. zo995l 5oB).
 I rultrs ril sPITE oF Atl FouR prEcEs 0F FtrM st¡ATcHEn rnom trrr ] L3

the photographer had to hide in the gas chamber, itself barely the second view is a little more fronral and slightly closer. So it
emptied-perhaps incompletely-ofvictims. He steps back into is more hazardous. Bur also, paradoxicall¡ it is more posed: it is
the dark space. The slant and the darkness in which he stands sharper. It is as though fear had disappeared for an instant in the
protect him. Emboldened, he changes direction and advances: face of necessity, the business of snatching an image. And we see

Fþres 3-4. Anon)¡nous (member ofthe Sonilerkommanilo of Auschwitz). gas chamber of crematorium V of Auschwitz, Au g)st;.944. Oswiecim,
Cremation ofgassed bodies in the open-air incineration pits in front ofthe Auschwitz-Bi¡kenau State Museum (negative n os. 277 -278) .
t4 I rmne rs rN sPrTE oF ALt
the everyday work of the other members of the squad, which is
that ofsnatching the last human semblance from the cadavers, still
sprawled on the ground. The gestures ofthe living tell the weight
ofthe bodies and the task ofmaking immediate decisions. Pulling,
dragging, throwing. The smoke, behind, comes from the incin-
eration pits: bodies arranged quincunciall¡ r.5 meters deep, the
crackling of fat, odors, shriveling of human matter-everything
of which Filip Müller speaks is there, under the screen of smoke
Figures 5-ó. Anonymous (member ofthe Sonderkommando of Auschwitz).
Women being pushed toward the gas chamber at crematorium V ofAuschwitz,
FouR ptEcEs 0F FttM si¡ATcHE0 FRoM HErr
] 15
that the photograph has captured for us. Behind is the birch-tree
copse. The wind is blowing from the north, perhaps the north-
east2e ("In Augu st of 19 44i' r emembers Primo Levi, "it was very hot
in Auschwitz. A torrid, tropical wind, lifted clouds of dust from
the buildings wrecked bythe air raids, dried the swear on our skin
and thickened the blood in our veins.")30
Having hidden rhe camera-in his hand, or in the bucket, or in
a patch of his clothes?-the "unknown photographer" now ven-
August 1944. Oswiecim, Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum
(negative nos. z Bz - 287).
 I rmlers t]t sPtTE oF Att FouR prEcEs 0F FrtM st{ATcHEo FBoM HE[t ] 17

Eures out ofthe cremetorium. He hugs the wall. Twice he tulns to The bodies in the foreground are waiting to be thrown into
the right. He finds himself then on the other side of the building, the fire. Another picture shows one of the places in the for-
to the south, and advances in the open air toward the birch trees. est where people undress before "showering"-as they were

There too, the hell continues: a "convoy" of women, already un- told-and then go to the gas chambers. Send film roll as fast
as you can. Send the enclosed photos to Tell-we think en-
largements of the photos can be sent further.33

group ofwomen who seem to be walking or awaiting their turn'

ñ.".." three other women are headed in the opposite direction.
The image is very blurred. We can see, however, a member ofthe
Sondæklrnmando inprofile, recognizable by his cap' At the very

ting through the boughs.

Alex then returns to the crematorium, probably to the north

the camera, brought back to the central camP' and eventually ex-
tricated from Auichwitzinatube of toothpaste in which Helena
Dantón, an employee of the SS canteen, will have hidden it'32 A
little later, on Septemb er +, tg4,it would reach the Polish Resis-
tance in Krakow, accompanied by a note written by rwo political
prisoners, Jósef Cyrankiewicz and Stanislaw Klodzinski:

the crematorium could not manage to burn all the bodies'

Y-

AGAINST ALL "Sent further . . ." Further where?

We may hypothesize that beyond
UNIMAGINABLE members of the Polish Resistance
(who were perfectly aware of the
massacre of the Jews), these im-
eges were to be sent into a zone
more western in its thought, cul-
ture, and political decision-making,
where such things could still be
said to be unimaginable. The four
photographs snatched by the Sonderkommando of crematorium V
in Auschwitz address the unimaginøble, and refute it, in the most har-
rowing way. In order to refute the unimaginable, several men took
the collective risk of dying and, worse, ofundergoing the punish-
ment reseryed for this kind of attempt: torture-for example, that
abominable procedure that SS Wilhelm Boger jokingly named his
"writing machine."t
"Sent further": the four images snatched from the hell of
Auschwitz address two spaces, two distinct periods of the un-
imaginable.'What they refute, first ofall, is the unimaginable that
was fomented by the very organization ofthe "Final Solution." If
a Jewish member of the Resistance in London, working as such
in supposedly well-informed circles, can admit that at the time
he was incapable ofimagining Auschwitz or Tieblinka,2 what can
be said of the rest of the world? In Hannah Arendt's anaþsis, the
Nazis "were totally convinced that one ofthe greatest chances for
the success oftheir enterprise rested on the fact that no one on the
outside could believe it."3 The fact that terrible information was
sometimes received but "repressed because ofthe sheer enormity"

Figure T.Jozef Cyrankiewicz and Stanislaw Klodzinski. Message addressed to

the Polish Resistance, Septembet 4,L944. Oswiecim, Auschwitz-Birkenau State
Museum.

['s ]
 I rule rs ri¡ sPITE oF
would follow Primo Levi to his nightmares. To suffer, to survive,
[i to tell, and then
not to be believed because it is unimaginable.a It
Jf
is as though a fundamental iniustice continued to follow the sur-
il ,.ivo.s all the way to their vocation of being witnesses.
Numerous researchers have carried out detailed analyses ofthe
machinery of disimagínation that made it possible for an SS officer
to sey: "Therãwiil-perhapò be suspicion, discussion, research by
historians, but there will be no certainties, because we will destroy
the evidence together withyou. And evenifsome proofshould re-
main and some ofyou survive, people will say that the events you
describe are too monstrous to be believed."s The "Final Solution,"
as we know, was kept in absolute secrecy-silence and smothered
information.6 But as the details of the extermination began to fil-
ter through, "almost from the beginning ofthe massacres,"t silence
needed a reciprocal discourse. It involved rhetoric, þing, an entire
strategy ofwords that Hannah Arendt defined int94z as the "elo-
quence ofthe devil."8
The four photographs snatched fromAuschwitz bymembers of
the Sonderkommando were also, therefo re, four refutations snatched
from a world that the Nazis wanted to obfuscate, to leave word-
less and imageless. Analyses ofthe concentration camp have long
converged on the fact that the camps were laboratories, experi-
mental machines for ageneral obliterøtion.It was the obliteration of
tbe þsycbe and the disintegration of the social link, as Bruno Bet-
telheim's analysis showed as early as ry43, when he was iust out
from eighteen months in Buchenwald and Dachau: "The concen-
tration camp was the Gestapo's laboratory for subjecting [. . .] free
men [. . .] to the process of disintegration from their position as
autonomous individualsl'e In r95o, Hannah Arendt spoke of the
camps as "laboratories ofan experience oftotal domination [. . .],
this objective being attainable only in the extreme circumstances
of a hell ofhuman making."to
It was also a hell made by humans for the obliteration of the lan'
guage of their victims. "It is an obvious assertion that where vio-
lence is inflicted on man," writes Primo Levi, "it is also inflicted on
language."l1 There is the silence imposed by isolation itself. There
Att
AGArf{ST Ârr U1{rMAErilÂBIE ] {
is the jargon of the camp and its effects of terror.rz There is the
perverse misappropriation ofthe German language and therefore
of German culture.'3 Finall¡ there is the lie, the perpetual lie in
the words uttered by the Nazis. Consider the innocence of the
expression Schutzstøfel, which is abbreviated as SS and denotes
"protection,2 "sheltering," "safeguarding" (scbutz). Consider the
neutrality ofthe adjective sonder-which means "separated," "sin-
gular," "special" even "strange" or "bizarre"-in expressions such as
I
Sonderbebandlung, " special treatment" (in reality, putting to death
by gas) ; Sonderbau; "special building" (in reality, the camp's brothel
reserved for the "privileged"); and, ofcourse, Sonderkornmando.
When, in the midst of this coded language, an SS member calls
something what it really is-for example, when the Auschwitz
adminisuation, in a message on Marchz,t943,lets slip the expres-
sion Gaskømmer,"ges chamber"-one must consider that a genu-
ine lapse.ra
What the words seek to obfuscate is ofcourse the obliteration of
bumøn bdngs, the very program ofthis vast "laboratory." To murder
\¡¡as not nearly enough, because the dead were never sufficiently
"obliterated" in the eyes ofthe "Final Solution." Well beyond the
privation of a grave (the greatest insult to the dead in antiquity),
the Nazis concentrated, rationally or irrationall¡ on "leaving no
single trace," and on obliterating every remnønt. . . Which explains
the insanþ oÍAktion rco5 when the SS had the hundreds ofthou-
sands of cadavers buried in common graves exhumed (by future
victims of course), in order to cremate them and to disperse or
reinter their ashes in the countryside.Is
The end of the "Final Solution"-in all senses of the word
"end": its aim, its last stage, but also its interruption by the mili-
tary defeat of the Nazis-called for a new enterprise, which was
the obliteration of tbe tools of the obliteration. Thus, crematorium V
was destroyed in January rg+Sby the SS itself. No less than nine
explosive charges were needed, one ofwhich, being very power-
ful, was placed in the fireproof ovens.r6 Yet another attemPt to
make Auschwitz unimaginable. After the Liberation, you could
find yourself in the very place from which the four photographs

I rmlses rìt sPtTE oF ALt
were snatched a feriv months earlier, and see nothing but ruins,
devastated sites, or "non-places"tt (fig. 8).
Filip Müllea moreover, specified that up to its destruction,
crematorium V continued "burning the corpses of prisoners who
had died in the main and auxiliary camps" while the gassing ofthe
Jews had already been interrupted.
Members of the Sonderkom-
manilo then had to burn, under strict surveillance, all "prisoners'
documents, card indexes, death certificates, and scores ofother
documents.ts" It was w'ith the tools of obliterationth¿t arcbittes-
tbe memory of tbeobliteration-bad to be obliterated- It was a way of
keeping the obliteration forever inits unimaginable cor-.diúon.
There is a perfect coherence between Goebbels's discourse,
anelyzedinrg4zby Hannah Arendt according to its central mo-
n other words, we will murder
ä:i::i'-."";i;ff;'Jl;i,1i:
the end of the war. Indeed "the forgetting of the extermination
is part of the extermination."20 The Nazis no doubt believed they
were making the Jews invisible, and making their very destruc-
tion invisible . They took such pains in this endeavor that many of
Figure 8. Anonymous (Russian). Ruins of crematorium V of Auschwitz, 1945'
r94ó. Oswiecim, Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum (negative no' 9o8)'
ÂElr!¡sr lrt uttmle nlnlr ] 2)
their victims believed it too, and many people still do today.2' But
"reason in history" is always subjected to the refutation-how-
ever minor, however dispersed, however unconscious, or however
desperate it be-ofparticular facts that ¡emain most Precious to
memory its imaginable possibility. The archives ofthe Shoah de-
fine what is certainly an incomplete, fragmentary territory-but
a territory that has survived and truly exists.2z
tl
Photograph¡ from this angle, shows a particular ability-illus-
trated by certain well- or lesser-known examples23-to curb the
fiercest will to obliterate. It is technically very easy to take a pho-
tograph. It can be done for so many different reasons, good or bad,
public or private, admitted or concealed, as the ective extension
of violence or in protest against it, and so on. A simple piece of
film-so small that it can be hidden in a tube of toothpaste-is
capable of engendering an unlimited number of prints, of gen-
ofthe prisoners.
What do we mean when we refer to "Reason in history"? It is
the state secret decreed at the place where the mass extermina-
tion occured. It is the absolute prohibition ofphotographing the
Einsatzgruppez's enormous acts of abuse in r94r.2s It is the notices
put up on the walls and fences around the camps: "Fotograferen
verboten! No entry! You will be shot without prior warning!"2ó
It is the circular sent around by Rudolf Höss, the commander at
Auschwitz, dated February 2,Lg+): "I would like to point out once
again that taking photographs within the camp limits is forbid-
den. I will be very strict in treating those who refuse to obey this
orderl'z7
But to prohibitwas to want to stoP an epidemic ofimages that
had already begun and that could not stop. Its movement seems as
sovereign as that of an unconscious desire. The ruse of the image
 I rule rs ril sPrrE or Arr
versus reason in history: photographs circulated everywhere-
those images in Eite of all-for the best and the \Morst reasons.
They began with the ghastþ shots ofthe massacres committed by
the Eínsøtzgruþþen, photographs generally taken by the murder-
ers themselyes.'8 Rudolf Höss did not hesitate either, in spite of
his own circular, to present Otto Thierack, the minister ofjustice,
with an album of photographs taken at Auschwitz.2e On the one
hand, this use ofphotographyverged on a pornography ofkilling.
On the other hand, the Nazi administration was so anchored in its
habits ofrecording-with its pride, its bureaucratic narcissism-
that it tended to register and photograph everything that was
done in the camp, even though the gassing of the Jews remained
a'state secret."
Two photography laboratories, no less, were in operation at
Auschwitz. It seems astonishing in such a place. However, every-
thing can be expected from a capital as complex as Auschwitz,
even if it was the capital of the execution and obliteration of hu-
man beings by the millions. In the first laboratory attached to the
"identification service" (Erkennungsdienø), ten to rwelve prisoners
worked permanendy under the direction of SS officers Bernhardt
Walter and Ernst Hofrnann, suggesting en intense production of
images here. These consisted mainly ofdescriptive portraits ofpo-
litical prisoners. Photos ofexecutions, ofpeople being tornrred, or
ofcharred bodies were shot and developed by SS members them-
selves. The second laboratory which was smaller, was the "office
of constructions" (Zentralbøuleitung). Opened at the end of r94r
or the beginningof ry4z,it was directed by the SS officer Dietrich
Kamann, who put together an entire photographic archive on the
,the whole "medical" ico-
il
ll
i I
sbyJosefMengeleandhis
dren ofAuschwitz.3t
Toward the end of the war, while the Nazis were burning the
archives en masse, the prisoners who served them as slaves for that
task availed themselves of the general confusion to save-to di-
vert, hide, disperse-as manyimages as theycould. Toda¡ around
forry thousand photographs ofthis documentation of Auschwitz
AGArl{ST Arr Uf{rMAGlilABtE ]
remain, despite its systemetic destruction. Their survival says
much about the probable size and horror ofthe iconography that
filled the files when the camp was in operation.32
tl
A single look at thts remnant of images, or erratic corpus of imøges
in Eíte of all, is enough to sense that Auschwitz can no longer be
spoken of in those absolute terms-generally well intentioned,
apperently philosophical, but ectually lazyrr- "ntttayable" and
"unimaginable." The four photographs taken in August Lg4-4by
the members of the Sonderkommøndo eddress the unimaginable
with which the Shoah is so often credited today-and this is the
second period of
it. Auschwitz has
shown that it is p
persist in our thought or, rather, give it a new turn. So, ifwe say
that Auschwitz exceeds any existing juridical thought, any notion
be re-
eds all
ust re- )
think the very foundations ofthe human sciences as such.3s
The historian's role is, of course, crucial to this task. Histori-
ans cannot and must not "accept that the problem posed by the
genocide ofthe Jews be neglected by relegating it to the unthink-
able. [The genocide] was thought, it was therefore thinkable."3ó
This is also the direction taken by Primo Levi in his criticism of
the speculations on the "incommunicability" ofthe concentration
camp testimony.3T The very existenc-e and the possibility of such
testimony-its enunc'íation ín Eite of øll-rcfute the grand idea,
the closed notion, ofan ansayble Lrischwitz. It is to the very core
of speech that testimõày invites us, compelling us to work there.
It is harsh work, since what it concerns is a description of death
at work, with the inarticulate cries and the silences that are im-
plied.38 To speak of Auschwitz in terms ofthe unsayable, is not to
bring oneself closer to Auschwitz. On the contrary it is to relegate

26 I rmlers ril sPITE
Auschwitz to a region that Giorgio Agamben has very well defined
in terms of mystical adoration, even of unknowing repetition of
the Nazi drcdnum itself.3e
We must do with the image what we already do more easily
(Foucault has helped us here) with language. For in each testimo-
nial production, in each act of memory language and image are
absolutely bound to one another, never ceasing to exchange their
reciprocal lacunae. An image often appears where a word seems to
fail; a word often appears where the imagination seems to fail. The
an experience becomes all the more necessary. Ifthe terror ofthe
camps functions as an enterprise ofgeneralized obliteration, then
each aþparítioz-however fragmentary however difficult to look
at and to interpre ofthis enterqrise is visu-
ally suggested to necessary.n' ../
The discourse rwo diffint and rigor-
ously symmetrical modes. The one proceeds from an aestbeticism
that often fails to recognize history in its concrete singularities.
The other proceeds from a historicism thet often fails to recognize
the image in its formal specificities. Examples abound. In particu-
lar, we will note that certain important works of art have caused
their commentators to give misleading generalizations on the
"invisibility" of the genocide. Thus, the formal choices of Sboab,
the film by Claude Lanzmann, have served as alibis for a whole
discourse (as moral as it was aesthetic) on the unrepresentable,
the unfigurable, the invisible, the unimaginable, and so on.a2 Yet
these formal choices were specific and therefore relative: they lay
down no rule. Avoiding the use of even a single "document from
the period," the film Sboøb precludes any peremptory judgment
on the status of photographic archives in general.a3 What it offers
instead is an impressive sequence-over ten hours-ofvisual and
sound images, offilmed faces, words, and places, all composed ac-
cording to formal choices and an extreme engegement with the
question of thefgurab I e.e
ÀGAlilST ALr UiilMAG|!¡ABLE ]
ot att
In turn, both the Dachau-Proje,år ofJochen Gerz and his invis-
ible Monument against Rncism in Sarrebrück gave rise to numerous
commentaries on the Shoah in general: "The Shoah was and re-
mains without images," writes Gérard Wajcman; it is even some-
thing both "without visible trace and unimaginable"; "the invis-
ible and unthinkable object par excellence"; the "production of
an Unrepresentable"; an "absolute disaster that absolutely cannot
be looked at"; a "destruction with no ruins"; "beyond imagination
and on the side ofmemory"; therefore "a thing unlooked ¿¡"-¡e
the extent that the "absence ofany image ofthe gas chambers"as is
ither
impressed upon us. Do the two poor images framed by the door of
or of
the
such
not
cou
by any thought, however just, on the exercise of art? "There is a
limit at which the exercise of an art, whatever it be, becomes an
6 -7
insultto misfortune," writes Maurice Blanchot
tl
It is highly significant that Blanchot, a thinker pJ. ."..11.n.. of
negatiyity without synthesis-in fact did not speak
-relentless,
of Auschwitz under the absolute authority of the unimaginable
or the invisible. On the contrary in the camps, he wrote, it was
the "invisible fthat] was forever rendered visiblel'+7 How should we
think this paradox? Georges Bataille can help us, he who never
feared to interrogate the silence addressed sparingly by Sartre in
his Réflexions sur Iø question juirøwith respect to the gas chambers.ns
Bataille, then-the thinker par excellence ofthe formless-speaks
of Auschwitz in terms of the similar, thefellow buman:
In being a man, there is generally an oppressive, sickly ele-
ment, which must be overcome. But this weight and this
repugnence were never as heavy as they have become since
Auschwitz. Like you and me, those responsible for Auschwitz
had nostrils, a mouth, a voice, human reason, they could
 28 I tmle rs ril sPrTE oF Au.
AGAtl{ST At-t Ut¡tMAGtl{rBrE ] 29

unite, could have children. Like the Pyramids or the Acropo-

of Auschwitz survivors, we access the real of an infinitely worse
lis, Auschwitz is the fact, the sign ofman. The image ofman is
cruelty, one in which, I contend, it was possible that tbefeast itself
inseparable, henceforth, from a gas chamber . . .ae
wøs þart of deøtb:
One evening toward the end of February lrg++], I was on
night-shift. When our teem arrived at crematorium 5 a few
hundred corpses were lying in the changing room, about
to be cremated. In the Kommandofíihrer's office, which was
must be considered with the anthropological fact-the fact about
connected with the cremation room by a door, a paffy was
the human race, es Robert Antelme wrote in the same yearso-that
in full swing. Kommandoftibrer Johann Gorges had been pro-
it is a haman beíng who inflicts torture, disfiguration, and death moted from Rottenfibrer to Unterscbarfì'ibrer. l. ..] The long
upon his fellow human being lsembløble): "We are not only poten-
table in the Kommandofibreìs office was spread with delica-
tial victims of the executioners: the executioners are our fellows
cies from all over the world. There were tinned foods, cold
ylsemblablesl."sr Bataille, the thinker par excellence of the impos- meats, cheese, olives, sardines, and other dainties, all taken,
I sible, well understood that we must speak of the camps as of the needless to say, from deportees. There was also Polish vodka
i posibte itself, the "possible of Auschwitz," as he specified.sz To say
to wash them down and ample supplies of cigarettes. About
this does not amount to making horror banal. On the contrary it
a dozen SS-Unterfübrer had come to the crematorium to cel-
engages with the concentration camp experience summarized by
ebrate Gorges'promotion. They sat around the table eating
Hermann Langbein:
and drinking. One ofthem had brought his accordion and was
No single criterion ofnormal life applied to the extermination plaFng folk and pop songs with the others joining in. They
camps. Auschwitz \ ¡as the gas chambers, the selections, the told each other blue jokes and as the hour advanced, the mood
processions ofhuman beings going to death like puppets, the grew increasingly genial. [. . .] From the cremation chamber
black wall and its trails of blood in the camp's roadway mark- came the noise of fans humming, Køþos shouting and stokers
ing the path ofthe vehicles which transported the executed to stoking the corpses inside the ovens with their iron forks.só
the crematorium, the anonymity of death which let no martyr
shine, the booze-ups of the prisoners with their guards. [. . .]
In Auschwitz, the spectacle of the prisoners dying from star-
vation was as habitual as the sight of the well-fe d Kapos. l. . .l
Nothing was inconceivable in Auschwitz. Everything was pos-
sible, literally everything.s3

If Bataille's thought is so close to thisterrtble buman possibilitl,itis

because he knew from the start how to formulate the indissoluble
link between the image (the production of the similar) and the
aggression (the destruction of the similar).sa In a story written in
the midst ofthe war, Bataille had imagined a cruel world where, he
said, "death itselfwas part of the feast."ss Throughout the stories
rBz I rH setrr ttF THE Ar.r. TMAGE
in the case ofthe honest soul, and the language conveying its
meaning is, therefore, full of esprit and wit (geistreicb).tts
We should understand this "perversion" in rhe sense of the Latin
perversio; that is, the act of disrupting, of deliberately putting
things back to front, as the Histoireþ) du cinámø does with history
in general. Let us understand the concept that "brings together
[ . . . ] thoughts that lie far apart" as an acriviry of monrage, as,
for example, when Godard asks us to bring rogether in our mind
an allegory of Goya, a victim of Dachau, a Hollywood star, and a
gesture in a Giotto painting (fr,gs.za-z).
This "torn consciousness" was often claimed or observed by
Jewish thinkers who survived the Shoah, from Cassirer or Ernsr
Bloch to Stefan Zweigor Kracauer. At the end of his workWeltge-
scbichte und Heikge scb ehen lMe aning in Historyl, KarlLöwith noted
the fundamental "indecision" ofwhat he called "the modern spirit"
in its relation to history.rra Hannah Arendt went fufther in her
analysis ofthis historical tearing: on rhe one hand, she placed the
artist, the poet, and the historian together as "builders of monu-
ments" without whom "the history that mortals play and recount
would.not survive an instant."lls On the other hand, citing René
Char-"Our heritage is not preceded by any tesrament"-A¡endt
observes the difficulty in our time of naming its own "lost trea-
sure." The "breach between the past and the future," as she calls it,
resides entirely in the impossibility ofrecognizing and of bringing
into þlay the heritage ofwhich we have become guardians:
It seemsthen that no single continuiry in time is assigned,
and that consequently there is, humanly speaking, no pesr
nor future.lró
The question of images is at the he art of the great darkness of our
time, the "discontent of our civilization." We must know how to
look into images to see that of which they are survivors. So that
history liberated from the pure past (that absolute, rhar abstrac-
tion), might help us to open the present oftime.
(zooz-zoo3)
t\l OTES
For exþlønøtion ofasteisk (*) following certain references, see Transløtor's Note, p. xi.
Four Pieces of Film Snatched from Hell
r. And with them, all the sophisms regarding which, I believe, there
are no grounds for philosophical ecstasies. See J.-F. Lyotzrd, Le diférend
(Paris: Minuit, t983) , ß -r7 , analyzing in this form the negationist argu-
ment: "In order to identifr that a place is a gas chamber, I will accept as
witness only a victim ofthis gas chamber; but, there must be, according
to my adversary no victim other than a dead one, or else this gas chamber
would not be what it purports to be; there is therefore no gas chamber."
z. P. Levi, The Drowned and the Saved, trans. R Rosenthal (New York:
Vintage Books 1989), 52.
3.Ibid.,5o.
4. F. Mùllea Eyewitness Auscbwitz: Three Years in tbe Gas Chamber¡trans.
S. Flateuer (New York: Stein and Day, r97 ù, 1¡g. Filip Müller represents the
extremely rare case of a member of the Sonderkommando who escaped five
successive liquidations. On this function and its secrecy, See G. Wellers,
Les cbambres à gaz ont eristé: Des documents, des témoignages, des cbffies (Patis;
Gallimard, rg8r). E. Kogon, H. Langbein, and A. Rückerl, Les cbambres à
gaz secret d'État $9$), trans. H. Rollet (Paris: Minuit, r9B4; reprinted Paris
Le Seuil, ryB).1.-C.Pressac,Auscbwitz: Tecbnique and Operation of tbe Gas
Cbambers,trans. P. Moss (NewYork: Beate Klarfeld Foundation, r9B9). Id.,
Les crématoires d'Auschwitz: La machinerie du meurtre de masse (Paris: CNRS
Editions, ryy); (p.75: "To kill men by the hundreds by gas with one go,
and in an enclosed space, was without precedent, and the secret in which
the operation was wrapped struck even more the imaginetion ofthe
nonparticipants, SS or prisoners, who had received the formal interdic-
tion against observing its working"). U. D. Adam, "Les chambres àgaz,"
L'Allemagne nazie et le génocide juf: Colloque à I'EHESS, Paris, juillet ry82
Gallimard-Le Seuil, ry9),216-26r. F. Pipea "Gas Chambers and
(Paris:
Crematoria," inAnatoml of tbe AuscbwitzDeath Camþ, ed. Y. Gutman and
M. Berenbaum (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994), ¡57-rïz.
 rB4
I rorrs Ttl
5. H. Langbein ,.Hommes etfemmes à Aascbwitz (1975) , trans.
(Paris: UGE, ry94),zoz-
6. ÌMiiller, Elewitness Auscbwitz-Latgbein, Hommes etfemmes à
Auschwitz, Lgt-zoz.
T.Langbein, Hommes etfemmes à Auschwitz, r93."
B. Ibid., tg4-195.*
9. Levi, Tbe Drowned and tbe Sawd,59. "No one has the right to judge
them, not those who experienced the camps, and even less those who did
not."
ro. G. Agamben, Remnants ofAuscbwitz: Tbe Witness and tbe Archiye,
Homo Sacer III, rrans. D. Heller-Roazen (Newyork Zone Books, zooz).
rr. Müllea Eyewitness Auscbwif2. The documentation on the .effects of
the revolt has been gathered by Pressac, Les cténatoires d,Auscbwitz,
93. On
the public execution of the last rebels, see p. Levi, Si c'est un bomme, îans.
M. Schruoffeneger (Paris: Julliard, r9B7; Lg% edj, ry9-r6l.
rz. Müller, Eyewitness Auscbwitz, Bz.
9.Ibid.,nz
14. See L. Poliakov, Auscbwitz
(parís:Julliard, t964),62-65 andry9-
r7r.B-Mark, Des yoix dans lø nait: La résistance juiue à Aascbwitz-Birkenau
(1965), trans. E. and J. Fridman and L. Princet (paris: plon, rggz). N. Co-
hen, "Diaries of the Sonderkommøndol' in Anatoml of tbe AascÍtwitz Deatb
Camp,5z2-5)+.
. - r5. On the physical description ofthe Srro lls ofAuscbwitzravaged by
humidity and therefore partially illegibte, see Mark, Des yoix dans la nuit,
179-Lgo.
ró. Cited by Langbein, Hommes etfemnes à Auscbwitz, 3."
17. A.
'Wieviorka,
Déportation et génocide: Entre la mémoire et I'oubli
(Paris: Plon, Lggz; L995 ed.), 255- 259.
rB. Pressac, I¿s crématoires d'Auschwitz, go.
r9.Ibid.,9r
zo. MíIIer, E1 ew itn e s s Au s c b w itz, tz 4.
zr. Ibid., rz5.
zz.Ibid.,o4-:176.
4.The documentation on crematorium V can be found inJ.-C. pres-
sac, "Érude et réalisation d es KrematorienlV et V d'Auschwitz-Birkenau,"
in L'AI le magn e nazie e t le géno cide j af, 99 - 58 4. Id., Au s chw itz : Te cbnique
and Operation . . ., j7g-428. Léon Poliakov (Auschwitz,5r-52) had already
cited letter from November 6,ry43,tnwhtch the SS ofAuschwirz ordered
a Cited and translated by R Boguslawska-Swiebocka and T. Ce-
green plants for the camouflage of crematoria I arrd II. OnJun e :16,:1944, Os-
wald Pohl was still putting aside a sum for "the erecting of a second interior
hedge, in order to hide the buildings from the prisoners." pr ess¿c, Les caéma-
pAGEs 4-s !¡oTES T0 PAcES s-17 ] rB5
D. Meu¡ier toíres d'Auschwitz, gt. Onthe subject ofthe camouflage of the "communica-
tion trench" ofTieblinka, see SS Franz Suchomel's very precise testimony,
gathered by C. Lanzmann in Sboab (Paris: Fayard, ry85), n3-n4
24. Testimony by Filip Mùller cited in ibid. He conrinues: "We were
henceforth the'bearers ofthe secret,'the condemned.'We ìvere not to
speak to anyone, not to come into contact with any prisoner. Not even
with the SS. Except those rher were in charge of the Aktion!'*
25. Millle;" Ey ewitness Aascbwitz, r33.
z6.Ibid.,¡'6-ry9. See also, among orhers, the testimony of G. Wellers,
L'étoilejaune à l'beure de Vícb1. De Drancl à Auscbwitz (Paris: Fayard, 1973) ,
z86-287. Kogon, Langbein, and Rückerl, I es cbambres à gøz secret d'État,
214-2L5, specifies that the pits were rz meters in lengrh, 6 meters wide,
and r.5 meters deep. One thousand people were burned there in one hour.
See also Pressac, "Étude et réalisation des Krematorien N etYl'
99- 584.
A discrepancy remains between certain testimonies of the members of
the Sonderkommøndo endPressac's analyses on the question ofknowing
whether the pits were dug because the ovens of crematorium V were not
working or were too full.
zT.H.Langbei¡, La résistance dans les camps de concentration nationaux-
socialistes, ryj8-t945 $98o),trans. D. Meunier (Paris: Fayard, ryBl,z97
(and passim, 2g7- 1.t5).
zB. Langbein, Ilo mrnes et femme s d'Auschwitz, 253: "stanlislaw Klodzin-
ski claimed that a Polish civilian worker called Mordarski, whose work
yard was not far awa¡ smuggled a camera into rhe camp. Hidden deep
within the false bottom ofa tub ofsoup, it passed into the hands ofthe
Sonderkonmanlo." Since Langbein's reconstitution is not without inaccu-
racies, we can also speculate that the camera might have been obtained in
the "Canada" section of Auschwitz, the gigantic storehouse ofthe victims'
stolen personal effects.
29. See Pressac, Auscbwitz: Tecbnique and Operation . . . , 4zz-4z4,wherc
we find a minutely detailed reconsrirution ofthese images. He specifies
that among the people photographed is an SS member, whose back is
turned (we understand, therefore, even more clearly the risk taken).
3o. Levi, Tbe Drowned and the Saued,79.
Auscbwitz: Technique and Operation .. . ,424, in which
3r. See Pressac,
the testimony of Szmulewski himself-survivor ofthe squad-is cited.
Langben, Hommes etfemmes à Auscbwitz,253.
32. See
33.
glowske, IJ- Aascbwitz: Fotografe dokumentølne (Warsaw: Kraiowa Agencja
Wydawnicza rg8o), rz. The code name "Tell" belongs to Teresa Lasocka-
Estreicher, a member, in Krakow, ofa clandestine commitee of aid to the
186 I norrs To PAGES rs-zo
prisoners in concentration camps. See also R Boguslawska and T. Swie-
bocka, 'Auschwitz in Documentary Photographs," trans. J. 'ù/ebber
and C. Wilsack, ín Auschwitz: A History in Photogrøphs, ed. T. Swiebocka
(Oswiecim, Warsaw, and Bloomington: Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum,
Ksiazka I Wiedza, and Indiana University Prcss, 1993), 4z-47 znd
t7z-r76, in which the names of other prisoners who took part in this op-
eration are specified: Szlomo Dragon, his brother Josek, and Alter Szmul
Fajnzylberg (known in the camp under the name of StanislawJankowski).
According to the testimony of Alter Fainzylberg, the camera could have
been a Leica (Clément Chéroux has told me that this is impossible, since
the format of the images is 6 x 6).
Against All Unimaginable
r. See H. Arendt, "Le procès d'Auschwitz" (r9óó), trans. S. Courtine-
Denam¡ in Auscbwitz et Jérusalem (Paris: Deuxtemps Tierce, LggL; LggT
ed.),275.*
z. See R A¡on, Mémoire s (Paris: Julliard, ry83), ry 6:'About the geno-
cide, what do we know about that in London? On the level of clear
conscience, my perception was roughly the following: the concentration
camps were cruel, directed by martinets recruited not among the politi-
cally minded, but rather among commonlaw criminals; mortality there
was high, but the gas chambers, the industrial murder ofhumans, no,
I must admit, I did not imagine them, and because I could not imagine
them, I did not know about them [je ne les ai pas sus]!'
3. H. Arendt, "Les techniques de la science sociale et l'étude des camps
de concentration" (r95o), trans. S. Courtine-Denzmy,inAuscbwitz et
Jérusalem, zo7.*
4. Levi, The Drowned and the Saved, u-rz. See also the narrative of
Moché{e-Bedeau with which E. Wiesel's b ook, La nuit (París; Minrljlt,
1958. r7-rB) pracically begins.
5. Testimony by Simon Wiesenthal, cited by Levi itTbe Drowned and
tba Søt¡ed, rr-tz.
6. See W. Laqreur, Le terr'fiant secret. La 'Solutionfnale" et I'information
étoufre (r9Bo), trans. A. Roubichou-Stretz (Paris: Gallimard, rgBr).
S. Courtois and A. Rayski, eds., Qui savait quoi? L'exterminøtion des jufs,
1941-i945 (Paris: La Découverte, ry87),7 -:.6 ("Stratégie du secret, straté-
gie de I'information").
T.Lzquerr, Le terr'fiant secret, z3B.
8. H. A¡endt, "Léloquence du diable" j94z),trerns. S. Courtine-
Denam¡ in Auschwitz et Jérusalem, ))-)4.*
il0TES T0 PAÊES 2o-22 ] LB7
9. B. Bettelheim, "Individual and Mass Behavior in Extreme Situa-
tions" (1943), in Surviu ing an d O th er E s s ay (New York Alfred A. fnopf,
ry7ù,8J.
ro. Arendt, "Les techniques de la science sociale et l'étude des camps
de concentration]' ztz. The "saved" themselves often referred to the
camps as "laboratories": see Levi, Si c'est un bomme,93. D. Rousset,
L'uniuers concentrøtionnaire (1945; Paris:Minuit, r9ó5), ro7-ru. See
W. Soßþ's study, L'organisation de la terreur: les camþs de concentration
$997),trad. O. Mannoni (Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1995), passim.
rr. Levi, Tbe Drowned and tbe Sa'tted,97.
rz. See Langbeit, Hommes etfemmes à Auschwitz, tt-r7.
13. See V. I{7empercr, LTI, la løngue du IIIe Reícb, Carnets d'un pbilologue
$947),trans. E. Guillot (Paris: Albin Michel, r99ó).
14. See Pressac, Auscbwitz: Tecbnique and oþeration . . . ,446. This is a
double slip in fact, since the SS wrote Gasskammer irtstead ol Gaskammer.
See also Kogon, Langbein, and Rückerl, I es cbambres à gaz senet d'État,
13-23 ("Un langage codé").
r5. See in particular Poliakov, Auscbwitz, 49- 52.See also, among orher
examples, Y. A¡ad, "Tieblinka," trans. J. Betson, La déportation: Le système
concentrationnaire nazi, ed. F. Bédarida and F. Gervereau (Nanterre, BDIC,
ry95), ry4: "End of February beginning of March 1943, Heinrich Himmler
visited Tieblinka. Following this visit, in accordance with his orders, an
operation was launched to incinerate the bodies ofthe victims. The com-
mon graves were reopened, and the corpses were taken out so that they
could be incinerated in enormous furnaces (the "pyres"). The bones were
ground and buried again in the same graves, with the ashes. This incinera-
tion ofthe corpses, in order to make all traces ofthe murders disappear,
continued intoJ,iy r9q!'On the subject ofthis episode, see the both
technical and unbearable testimony ofSS Franz Suchomel, gathered by
Lanzmann, Shoah,64-7o. There it is specified that the Sonderkommando of
Treblinka was changed-i.e., murdered-every day.
16. See Pressac, Auscbwitz: Technique ønd Operation . . . , )go-)gu.
This makes the stricùy archeological approach ofthe work under-
17.
taken by Pressac all the more precious-and ro which P. Vidal-Naquet
paid hommage in "Sur une interprétation dugrand massacre: Arno Mayer
et la 'solution finale"' (r99o), in Les Jufs, la mémoire et le þrésent,Il (Paris:
La Découverte,ry9r),z6z-266. On the question ofthe "ruined" place and
of its use (equally archeological) in the film .låo ab, see G. Didi-Huberman,
"Le lieu malgré tout" (1995), in Phasmes: Essais sur l'apparition (Paris:
Minuit, r99B), zzï - z4z.
rB. Müllea Eyawitness Auscbwitz, t6t -t62.
1BB I Hores Ttl PAGEs zz-24
19. Arendt, "On ne prononcera pas le kaddish" (1942), trans. S. Courtine-
Denam¡ it
Auscbwitz et Jérusalem, 79 - 4t.
zo.J.-L. Godard, Histoireþ) du cinéma (Paris : Gallimard-Gaumont,
r99B), I, ro9.
zr. See the despairing testimony of the Jewish historian Itzhak Schip-
per, just before being deported to Majdanek: "History is written, in
general, by the victors. All that we know about murdered peoples is that
which their murderers were willing to say about it. If our enemies win, if
it is they who write the history of this war [. . .] they can decide to erase
us completely from world memory as though we never existed." Cited by
kBrtel, Dans la langue ile personne: Poésie lddisb de l'anéantissement (Paris:
Le Seuil, L9%),4. See also S. Felman's theses in'À l'âge du témoignage:
Sboab de Claude Lanzmann," trans. C. Lanzmann andJ. Ertel, ínAa sujet de
Sloah,leflm ile Claude Lanzmann (Paris, Belin, r99o), 55-145.
zz.This also allowed for the precise reconstitution ofthe extermina-
tion machine in the crucial work ofR Hilberg, Tbe Destruction of tbe Euro'
þean Jews (Chicago: Quadrangle Books, r9ór). See, more recend¡ J. Fredi,
ed., Les arcbives de la Sboab (Paris: CDJCJ'Harmattan, 1998).
23. See the important bibliography by U. Wrockhge, Fotografe und
Holocaust: Annotierte BibliograPbie (Frankfvt: Fritz Bauer Institut, r99B).
Among the principal studies, see Boguslawska-Swiebocka and Ce-
glowska, IJ- Aascbwitz. Sv¡iebocka, ed., Auscbwitz: A History in Pbotograpbs.
S. Milton, "Images of the Holocaustl' Holocaust and Genocide Studies t
(1986), no. rz7 - 6t, no. z:r91 - 2i:6. D. Hoftnann, "Fotografi erte Lager:
Überlegungen zu einer Fotogeschichte deutscher Konzentrationslager,"
Fotogescbicbte, no. 54 $994):3-zo. It is worth noting the exceptional case
of the 'Auschwitz Album": P.HelIman, L'album d'Auschwitz: D'øprès un
album ilécoavert par Lili Meier, surviuante du camþ de concentration $981,
trans. G. Casaril, completed by A. Freyer and J.-C. Pressac (Paris: Le Seuil,
19B3).
24. See G. Didí-Huberman, Ménorøndum de la þeste: Leféau d'imaginer
(P ar i s: Chrístízn Bourgois, r983).
25. See Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews, zr4, n.r4o: "[Hey-
drich] forbade his own men to take pictures. 'Official'photographs were
to be sent undeveloped to the RSHA IV-A-I as secret Reich matter (Ga-
heime Reichssaclte). Heydrich dso requested the Order Police commands to
hunt up photographs which might have been circulating in their areas."
26. Inscription on a warning sign placed around the Natzweiler camp.
Citedby Boguslawska-Swiebocka and Ceglowska, IC,4 uscbwitz, rr.
27.
exhibition entidedVernicbtangskrieg: Verbrecben dn
28. See the
Wehrmacht ry4t bis ry44 (Hamburg: Hamburger Edition, 1996; rev. ed.,
t{0TES T0 PÂGES 24-25 ] rB9
Verbrecben der Webrmacbt: Dimensionen dcs Vernichtungskriege s
ry41 - 1944
(Hamburg, Hamburger Edition zooz).
29. See Hilberg, Tbe Destruction of tbe European
Jews.
Boguslawska-Swiebocka and Swiebocka,'Auschwitz in Docu-
3o. See
mentary Photographs," J5- 4z.tJ. Wrocklage, "Architektur zur .Vernich-
tung durch Arbeit': Das Album der 'Bauleitung d. Waffen-SS u. polizei
K. L. Auschwitzj" Fotogæchichte,no.54 $994):3t-47. This archive ofthe
Bauleitungisthe main source for Pressac's works Auschwitz: Technique and
Operøtion . . . , and Les crématoires d'Auscbwitz.Itmrstbe pointed out that,
ofthe 4o,ooo phoros conserved, 39,ooo are identification photographs.
3r. See R J. Lifton, Tlte Nazi Doctors: Medical Kilting and tbe psycbotog of
Genocide (NewYorkBasic Books, 1986).
Boguslawska-Swiebocka and C egow ska, I{L Aus c bw itz, :rz,
32. See
where Bronislaw Jureczek's testimony is cited: "Almost at the very last
moment we were told to burn all the negatives and photographs kept in
the Erkennungsdiensf. There was a coal srove in the laboratory into which
we first began ro put wet photographic paper and pictures, end then
loads ofphotos and negatives. The enormous amount ofmaterial shoved
into the stove closed offthe chimney. When we set the material afire,
we were convinced that only a part ofthe photos and negetives near the
opening would burn, and that the remaining part would not, as rhe fire
would die out for lack of air. After the war I found our rher our inren-
tions were carried out, and at least a large percentage ofthe photos and
negatives fell inro rhe hands ofthe right people. . .] We deliberately
[.
scattered some of the pictures and negatives in the rooms ofthe labora-
tory faking nervousness. I knew that the evacuation was being carried
out in such a hurry that no one would have time to clean away everything,
and that somethingwould survive."
33. See Wieviorka, Déþortation et génocide, ró5: 'As a historical matter,
the notion ofthe unsayable seems a lazy notion. It has exonerated the his-
torian from his task which is precisely to read the prisoners' restimonies,
to examine this major source for the history ofthe deportation, includ-
ing even its silences"-and I would add, for my part: including even its
lmeges.
34. See H. Arendt, "Limage de I'enfer" (1946), trans. S. Courrine-
Denamy, inAuscbwitz et Jérusalem, r5z. Id. "Le procès d'Auschwitz,"
zj3-259. These thoughts are taken up by G. Agamben in,,eu'est-ce qu'un
camp?" (1995), trans. D. Valin, ín Moyns sansfns: Notes sar la politiqae
(Paris: Rivages , rg95) , 47 - 56.
35. SeeArendt, "Limage de l'enfer," r5z -rg.Id,"Les techniques de la
science sociale et l'étude des camps de concentrati onj' zo1-zrg.
 f{oTEs T0 PAGES 2s-2s
190 I norrs To PAGEs zb-26 ] r91

Vidal-Naquet, "Préfece" to G. Decrop , Des camþs au génocide: La

3ó. P.
politique de l'impensable (Grenoble: Presses universitaires, 199), 7.
37.Leví,The Ðrowned andthe Sat¡ed, BB-ro4. On Levi's-exaggerat-
ed-critiques regarding the "obscuriry" of Paul Celan, see E. Tiaverso,
L'Histoire décbirée: Essai sur Aaschwitz et les intellectuels (Paris: Le Cerf,
ryg7),n. C. Mouchard, "'Ici'?'Maintenant'? Témoignages et æuwes," in
La Sboab: Témoignages, sauoirs, eanres, ed. C. Mouchard and A. Wieviorka
(Saint-Denis, Presses universitaires de Vincennes-Cercll, ry99), zz5-26o.
F. Carasso, "Primo Levi, le parti pris de la clarté," in ibid., z7t-zïr.
to them [those in charge ofthe memorial ofYadVashem], when, in r98o,
I gave them this album, which originally belonged to an ex-prisoner:
'One da¡ later, it will be like the Dead Sea Scrolls, because these are the
only authentic photographs ofJews arriving at a concenrrarion cemp."'*
Klarsfeld, 'A la recherche du témoignage eurhenrique l' hLa Shoab: Témoi-
gnages, saroirs, Garre s, 5c..
42. See in particular G. Koch, "Transformations esrhériques dans la
représentation de l'inimaginable" þ98ó), trans. C.'Weinzorn,Aa Sujet de
Shoah, lefln de Claude Lanzmann, y7 -166 ("he refuses any represenration

38. On testimon¡ Se e Wieviorkz, Déportation et génocide, rór-róó. Id.
L'ère du témoin (París: Plon, r99B).
39. See Agamben, Remnants of Auschwitz,3z-33, andt57: "But why un-
sayable? Why confer on extermination the prestige ofthe mystical? [. . .]
To say that Auschwitz is "unsayable" or "incomprehensible" is equivalent
to eupbemein, to adoring in silence, as one does with a god. [. . .] That is
why those who assert the uûsayabiliry of Auschwitz today should be more
cautious in their statements. If they mean to sey that Auschwitz was a
byimages. [. . .] Through the absence ofimages, he therebygives a repre-
sentetion of the unimaginable.") I. Avisaa Sneening tbe Holocaust: Cinemø's
Images of tbe Unimøginøble (Bloomington: Indiana Universiry Press, r98B).
S. Felman, i4,l'âge du témoignage," 55-145. See, on rhe orher hand, the
reaction ofAnne-Lise Stern, a survivor ofthe camps: "I can understand
Shoshana Felman more or less when she speaks ofthe 'rupturing ofthe
very act of eyewitness testimony itself' or even her thesis ofthe Holocaust
as an 'event without a witness, an event whose historical project is the

unique event in the face ofwhich the witness must in some way submit literal obliteration ofits witnesses.'At the same rime, I find her absolutely
his every word to the test of an impossibility of speaking, they are right. outrageous, and I refuse to understand her." A.-L. Stern, "Sois déportée
But iC joining uniqueness to unsayabiliry, they transform Auschwitz into . . . et témoigne! Psychanalyser, témoigner: double-bind?" ít La Sboab, zt.
a reality absolutely seperate from language [. . .], then they unconsciously 43. It seems unnecessary here to discuss the unseemly debate between
repeat the Nazis' gesture; they are in secret solidarity withthe arcanam Claude Lanzmann andJorge Semprun (see Le monde des débats,May zooo,
imperiï' rr-r5) on the subject ofthe exisrence a¡d use ofa hypothetical archival
4o. Here, in my opinion, is a limit in the important reflections of film about the gas chambers.
Agamben, ibid., rz and 5r: "Truth is [. . .] unimaginable [. . .] but the sight 44. See Didi-Huberman, "Le lieu maþé tout," zzï-242.
of Muselrncinner is an absolutely new phenomenon, unbearable to human 45. G. Wajcman, L'objet du siècla (Paris: Verdiea 1998), zr, 27, 236, 239,
eyes." To speakin these terms amounts to, among other things, ignor- 244, z+7, z4B, and passim.
ing the whole photographic production ofEric Schwab: aJew, who was 4ó. M. Blanchot, L'écriture du désastre (Paris: Gallimard), r98o, r3z.
captured by the Germans but escaped after six weeks ofimprisonment, 47.Ibid.,n9.
Schwab followed the advance ofthe American army in 1945, discover- 48. G. Bataille, 'Sartre" $9a7) , in Oeatres Complèler, )A (paris: Galli-
ing the camps ofBuchenwald and Dachau (among others). He was as yet mard, 1988), zz6-228. Regarding the context ofthis debate, See Traverso,
unaware ofwhat had become ofhis ovin mother, who had been deported L Histoire décbiré e, zr4 - zt5.
to Theresienstadt. It was in these conditions that he took photographs- 49. Bataille, "S¿rtrel' zz6.
which were obviously empathetic, unforgettable in any case-of 5o. R Antelme , L'espèce bumaine þ947;Pais: Gallimard, 1957).
*Réflexions
Muselmtinner, those living cadavers upon whom he w¿s able to gaze, no 5r. G. Bataille, sur le bourre au et la victime" $9a) , in
doubt seeing his own fate as the fate of his people. I owe this information CÛuwes complète s, K, 266.
about Schwab, including some others in this text, to the remarkable pre- 5z-Ibid.,z67.
paratory work of Clément Chéroux for the exhibition entiúedMémoire 53. Langbein, Homme s etfemmes Auscbøitz, B7- 88.*
à

des camþs: Pbotograpbies des camps de concentration et d'extermination nazis 54. See G. Didi-Huberman, inþrme, ou le gøi søt oir yisuel
Z a ressemblance

(Paris: Marval, zoor). I thank him very warmly. selon Georges Bataille (Peris:Macula, 1995). The link berween the imaginary
ftSlS -tggg)
4r. Regarding the Auscbwitz Album, SergeKTarsfeld writes: "And I said and aggression was theorized-very much in the style ofBataille-by
r92 I rorrs Ttl PAGES zB-32 1ìl0TES T0 PAGES 33-38 ] 19)

J. Lacan, "Lagressivité en psychanalyse" (1948), in Écrits (Paris: Le Seuil,
t966),lr,-n4.
55. G. Bataille, Madame Edwarda $9q),inOeuures complètes,IIl (Pais:
Gallimard, ry7r),22.
56. Mí1lIet Ey ewitne ss Auscbwitz, 93- 94.
In the Very Eye of History
r. The drawing by David Olère is reproduced by Pressac in Auschwitz:
Technique and Operation . . . , 259. The corpses (in the
middle distance),
are those ofa transport of French Jews; on rhe rable ofthe
SS (in the
foreground) the "booty" is spread; packs ofGauloises and bottles ofBor-
deaux. On David Olère, see S. Klarsfeld, Dayid Olère, ryoz-t985: Un peintre
au Sonderkommando àAuscbwitz (New York Beate Klarsfeld Foundation,
1989). On the drawings of the camps, see in particular J. P. Czarne cki, Last
Traces: Tbe Lost Art of Auscbwirz (New York, Atheneum, 1989). D. Schul-
mann, "D'écrire I'indicible à dessiner I'irreprésentable,"in Face à l'bistoire,
toz3-t996: L'artistemoderne de.ttant l'éuénement historiqae, ed. J.-P. Ameline
(Paris: Centre Georges Pompidou-Flammarion, r99ó), ry+-$7.
z. Cited by Mark, Des yoix dans la nuit, zo4.*
3. Ibid., 2+5-25t.
4. W. Beniamin, "Sur le concept d'hisroi-r;e" $94o), Écritsfrançais, ed.
J.-M. Monnoyer (Paris: Gallimard, ry9t),346. [Benjamin's articles col-
lected in this edition were originally written in French.-Trans.]
5. Arendt, "Le procès d'Auschwitz," 257-258. She then lists a number
ofactual situations marked by horror and absurdity. The conclusion of
the text is as follows: "That is what happens when men decide to rurn rhe
world upside down.""
6. Cited by Mark, Des yoix dans la nuit, t94J
7. See M. Frizot, "Faire face, faire signe. La photographie, sa part
d'histoire," in Face à l'histoire,5o:"The notion of photography of an event
or photography ofhistory is consrandy ro be reinvented in rhe face ofhis-
tory being unforeseeable. [. . .] [But this same] photographic image is an
image that is somewhat fore-seenfpré-uuef!'
B. See Wieviorka, L'ère du témoin, t4. See also M. Pollak and N. Heinich,
"Le témoignag el' Actes de la rechercbe en sciences sociales, nos. 6z-63 j986):
3-29. Pollak, "Lagestion de I'indicible," ibid.,3o-53.
9. See Levi, Tbe Drowned and Tbe Sayed, n-u.
ro. See Wieviorke, Déþortation et génocide, t6t-t66.Id., L'ère du témoín,
rrz and n7,whích does not include photography in the reflecrions on
testlmony.
rr. The expression is Filip Mùller's, cited by Lanzmann in Sboab, ry9.
rz. Bédarida and Gervereau, 'Avant-propo sl' La déportation, B.
r3. Gervereau, "Représenter l'univers concentrationrrzirel' lbid. 244.
Id. "De I'irreprésentable: La déportation' ín Les images qui mentent:
Histoire du ttisual au Æe siècle (Paris: Le Seuil, zooo), zol-zrg. See also
A. Liss, Tresþassíng through Sbadows: Memorl, Photograþb1, and tbe Holocaust
(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, r99B). The question has
been explored in more detail by S. Friedlander, ed., Probing tbe Limits of
Representation: Nazism and the "Final Solution" (Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press, r99z).
r4. See Pressac, Auscbwitz: Tecbniqae and Operation . . . ,4zz-424.
r5. Langbein, Ilo mm e s etfemme s à Au s chwitz, 251.*
16.See Mémoire des camps,86-9r.
q. A.Brycht,Excursion: Auschwitz-Birkenau, trans. J.-Y. Erhel (Paris:
Gallimard, ryBo),37,54,79, cited and commented on by Pressac itAusch-
witz: Tecbnique and opnation . . . ,4zj-424.
rB. See in particular Boguslawska-Swiebocka and Ceglowska,lØ
Auscbwítz, r84-r85 (all the photos that have been cropped). Swiebocka,
ed., Auscbwitz: A Historl in Pbotograþhs, ryz-ry5 (all the photos that
have been cropped). M. Berenbaum , Tbe World Must Know: Tbe Historl
of tbe Holocaast as Told in the United States Holocaast Memoriøl Museum
(Boston: Little, Brown and Compan¡ ry%), g7 (cropped photo) and
r5o (photo that has not been cropped). Bédarida and Gervereau, eds., La
déportation, 59 and 6 (cropped photos). Y. Arad, ed., Tbe Pictorial Hístor1
of tbe Holocausl (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, t99o), z9o-zgr (two cropped
photos).
19. Ifeven Pressac (Aaschwitz: Technique and operation .. . , 4zz) crops
the photos in a rectangular format, which distorts their original format
of 6 x 6, it is because the negatives themselves have disappeared: all the
Auschwitz museum has is a contact print whose surrounds have been
reduced, and even torn (figr. I -+).
zo.Presszc, Auscbwitz: Tecbnique and Oþeration . . . , 4zz.
zr. Agamben, Remnants of Auschwitz.
zz. Ibid.
23. Simon Srebnik (survivor of Chelmno), cited by Lanzmann in
Sboab, ß. among the numerous expressions of this responsibil-
See also,
ity, Antelme, I'espèce hamaine,9.J. Arnéry,Par-delà le nime et le châtiment:
Essai pour surmonter l'insurmontable þ,977), trans. F. Wuilmart (Arles: Actes
Sud, 1995), 68-Zg.Bla¡chot, L'écriture du désøstre, r3r. E. Wiesel, Preface to
ÌMark, Des yoix dans la nuit,[tr.
24. Cited by Mzrk, Des yoix dans la nuú,3o9.