Auschwitz Erkennungsdienst

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In German-occupied Poland during World War II and the Holocaust, the ''Politische Abteilung Erkennungsdienst'' ("Political Department Identification Service") in the Auschwitz concentration camp was a ''kommando'' of SS officers and prisoners who photographed camp events, visiting dignitaries, and building works on behalf of the camp's commandant, Rudolf Höss.

The ''Erkennungsdienst'' also took photographs of inmates, including gassings, experiments, escape attempts, suicides, and portraits of registered prisoners (those not immediately murdered in the gas chambers) when they first arrived at the camp.

Led by its director, SS-''Hauptscharführer'' Bernhard Walter, and deputy director, SS-''Unterscharführer'' Ernst Hofmann, the ''Erkennungsdienst'' took the 193 photographs that came to be known as the Auschwitz Album, which included images of Hungarian Jews in the summer of 1944 just before they were gassed. Provided by Wikipedia