Dead SS guard in canal, Dachau, Germany, 1945
Elizabeth 'Lee' Miller (23 April 1907 - 21 July 1977) was an American
photographer. Born in Poughkeepsie, New York State in 1907, she was a
successful fashion model in New York City in the 1920s before going to
Paris to become a fashion and fine art photographer. During the Second
World War, she became an acclaimed war correspondent and
photojournalist.
With the outbreak of the Second World War, Miller had separated from
Bey and was living in Hampstead, London when the bombing of that city
began. Ignoring pleas from friends and family that she should return
to the US, Miller embarked on a new career in photojournalism as the
official photographer for Vogue documenting the Blitz and was
accredited to the U.S. Army as a war correspondent for Condé Nast
Publications from 1944. She teamed up with David E. Scherman, a Life
Magazine correspondent on many assignments. Miller travelled to France
less than a month after D-Day and recorded the first use of napalm at
the battle of St. Malo, the liberation of Paris, the battle for
Alsace, and the horror of the Nazi concentration camps when the
victims were liberated. A photograph by Scherman of Miller in the
bathtub of Adolf Hitler's house in Munich is particularly well-known.
During this time, Miller photographed a child in a Vienna Hospital who was suffering after receiving black market pharmaceuticals. Author Graham Greene was influenced by this photo when he wrote the screenplay "The Third Man".
Copyright; Lee Miller Archive.
Comments and faves
Al Fed, Maria A.., sackdumm, Mr Luke Harby, and 48 other people added this photo to their favorites.
HellooDave (65 months ago | reply)
amazingly sinister
Al Fed (65 months ago | reply)
I keep looking and there are so many questions noone will ever answer.
Mr. Rubber Ducky (65 months ago | reply)
How many people did this abomination help murder at Dachau?
HellooDave (65 months ago | reply)
what does abomination mean?
Jo Hedwig Teeuwisse (65 months ago | reply)
dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=185& dict=CALD
Mr. Rubber Ducky (65 months ago | reply)
"Abomination" means someone who has been very, very, very evil.
lennardg (65 months ago | reply)
It has been argued on some internet sites that this man and others were in fact innocent of the crimes at Dachau since he served with a frontline (Waffen-SS) unit stationed in the area and not the Dachau camp guards. He is wearing the special SS camouflage uniform only issued to frontline troops. Others argue that he was in fact a camp guard who had tried to pass as a frontline soldier to escape justice.
HellooDave (65 months ago | reply)
what Al Fed said.
he's dead now anyway
BastianKM (61 months ago | reply)
I think he is regular Waffen SS soldier, though a scapegoat and murdered.
Jo Hedwig Teeuwisse (61 months ago | reply)
Where do you base that on?
Besides, if he was a waffen ss soldier, he wouldnt be innocent, especially near Dachau.
Perhaps innocent of the concentration camp crimes, but quilty of others.
Either way, not innocent in the eyes of the former prisoners or liberators of Dachau.
BastianKM (55 months ago | reply)
I'm not going to argue further. I think it is ignorant to think this man was guilty only because he served in a particular unit during the war.
Jo Hedwig Teeuwisse (55 months ago | reply)
Well he was guilty of serving in a particular unit during the war!
If you were a soldier in the Waffen SS, there is plenty to be blamed for.
Even if you werent a guard in a camp.
I think its ignorant to asume someone in the Waffen SS is just a innocent soldier.
HellooDave (55 months ago | reply)
welcome to Oradour
www.flickr.com/photos/curreyuk/2405574396/
une village qui souffre en silence
BastianKM (55 months ago | reply)
I think that the way the Waffen-SS has been portrayed is the reason why their reputation has been tainted. It's easy to judge someone as a bad when the entire world paints them that way, but from the people I have met I wouldn't share that same blatant view.
Jo Hedwig Teeuwisse (55 months ago | reply)
Well I've met their victims and their enemies, Ive talked to Wehrmacht veterans and most of them share a rather unpositive view of the Waffen SS, to put it mildly.
The W-SS was more then just a military unit.
They werent all campguards, not all were volunteers but in general they were politically motivated, idealistic, ruthless.
Too many people want to believe the W-SS was just another group of soldiers, just fighting for their country... they were a bit more then that.
BastianKM (55 months ago | reply)
The people I have met were good soldiers, and even though they may have held certain views or 'political motivation' it never automatically made them criminals.
Jo Hedwig Teeuwisse (55 months ago | reply)
The Nuremberg Trials disagree with you.
BastianKM (55 months ago | reply)
Let the world disagree with me then, it doesn't surprise me that my opinion has to be contested.
Jo Hedwig Teeuwisse (55 months ago | reply)
Perhaps your opinion needs adapting.
Jo Hedwig Teeuwisse (55 months ago | reply)
Is this the same man?
BastianKM (55 months ago | reply)
What happened to that last post? I logged on last night and now it's gone?
That may be the same man but I never contested the location, only his identity. I looked up this photo and it stated in the official archives for the photographer that this photo was taken on 30th April, 1945. That is exactly one day after an American unit had liberated the camp, and murdered up to (figures unconfirmed per many differing accounts) 300 "Guards" as per Dwight Eisenhower's statement. This also turned into a collection point for German prisoners of war so I wouldn't be surprised if this man was in fact a combat soldier, and not a camp guard.
But regardless, it doesn't justify his death as that action on 30th April is considered a War Crime perpetrated by the Allies.
Jo Hedwig Teeuwisse (55 months ago | reply)
The last comment wrote about the Waffen SS fighting for freedom, I wont allow comments like that.
The SS men in the camp were guards at the time of surrender although they had been regular waffen SS troops before and most men found in the camp were probably not part of the regular staff.
However many of thise killed were known by the inmates.
We dont know if the man in the photo was killed by the American soldiers or the inmates.
Either way of course his murder was of course not right and a warcrime, however we dont know why his was murdered and by whom.
Yes he may not have been a SS campguard during most of the war, yes he may have been unlawfully killed, but the Waffen SS is by law seen as an criminal organisation so no matter how you look at it, he was in a way a criminal.
BastianKM (55 months ago | reply)
I don't understand why you wouldn't, how can tolerance prevail if those tolerant are themselves intolerant of an opposing view? That person spoke of a family member and has stronger ties that someone interviewing a person.
Maybe in today's modern incompetent society he is seen as a criminal, even in certain governments but I still believe that any veteran of the Waffen-SS deserves as much as anyone else that fought in the armed forces during the war. Not alienation based on the intolerance of the tolerant minded, who can't admit to that fault.
Jo Hedwig Teeuwisse (55 months ago | reply)
I wont allow silly comments from people who have just joined flickr to comment.
He wrote that the Waffen SS was fighting for freedom, it wasnt, it was fighting for a Nazi regime that would have kept Germany and many other countries under its control had it not been defeated.
To me it doesnt just matter HOW you fight but WHAT you fight for, yes everyone afterwards says that they were fighting for their country and friends, but during the war they were fighting to keep Hitler in power, wether they liked it or not.
Their actions were supporting him.
The Waffen SS was a criminal organisation, that isnt my opinion, its what a international court decided.
Veterans of the Waffen SS do NOT deserve the same respect as those who fight to end the nazi reign of terror.
If you really believe that there is no use to continue this discussion with you.
"Toleranz wird zum Verbrechen, wenn sie dem Bosen gilt"
Thomas Mann
aetius0451 (55 months ago | reply)
he could be my father
Jo Hedwig Teeuwisse (55 months ago | reply)
Ah, months this picture received little attention, then a little discussion starts and suddenly there are two new flickr members with similair opinions...
Was your father a Waffen SS guard in Dachau who died during the liberation?
aetius0451 (55 months ago | reply)
phisical ressemblance only (i have german origin : my grand parents and family are buried in Estonia in the german section of the town cemetery separately from estonians, russians and jews).
aetius0451 (55 months ago | reply)
you may have a lot of coments because this picture is displayed in an article of l'Histoire (a french magazine, i'm curently in France) of this month
Jo Hedwig Teeuwisse (55 months ago | reply)
Ah, I see.
Well its easy to find it everywhere on the internet.
As long as it reminds people of war, im happy.
Regardless if I agree with them or not.
Remembering history and realising its importance is what I care about most.
Traummörder (51 months ago | reply)
Man is from ss Field Unit not Camp guard. They were posted there because Regular guards left their post as allies advanced. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. War Crimes against ss men were committed in large amounts during the war and after by all the allies.
Jo Hedwig Teeuwisse (51 months ago | reply)
So he was a man in a SS uniform fighting for the Nazi ideology that put those people in the camp he was guarding or posted near.
Either way, we dont know who he is or what he was doing, we cant base that on what he was wearing at the time.
The photographer titled this photo, we don't know why she titled it this way, she may have titled it this way simply because prisoners identified him afterwards as a guard.
Do we even know how he died?
All we know for sure is that he is a dead man in a canal in a camp wearing what seems to be a (partial) SS uniform and that he was labeled a SS guard by the person who was there at the time.
Can you commit a warcrime after a war is over, or does it then turn into just crime?
BastianKM (50 months ago | reply)
Transfers from other branches of service such as Luftwaffe were common towards the end of the war, so this man could've been simply apolitical yet still a victim of circumstance.
Please post pictures of Communist partisans or Soviets that guarded gulags and were beaten/killed.. oh wait there never was any justice for their victims!
Jo Hedwig Teeuwisse (50 months ago | reply)
How many Communist partisans guarded gulags?
Lord_Kitchener (42 months ago | reply)
Every last one of us is capable of the kind of acts the SS perpetrated. You people shouldn't be so self-righteous. The same evil lurks in your own flesh whether you choose to believe it or not.
Jo Hedwig Teeuwisse (42 months ago | reply)
Yes it is in everyone, yet not everyone lets it out, many choose to fight it.
StoffeH (41 months ago | reply)
well... Speaking as an ex soldier and a history nerd... You can easily argue that EVERYONE in the SS organization knew exactly what was going on. I find it very hard to believe that the survivors of the SS where chocked or even horrified when it got out what had happened inside the camps. There are many of rosters from SS units that has survived to this day that show how many SS-"soldiers" rotated between front-line duty and guard duty. Some of these men must have told their comrades about what was going on. Modern research has even showed how Whermacht, who until today rarely gets accused of warcrimes, often helped the SS to commit warcrimes... If not directly, they often watched, supplied the tools and did nothing to stop them. Last but not least; one can see in the design of the Whermacht in 1935, that this is not a military organization designed for just a military purpose... It was made for far worse thing. Book tip Guido Knopps Hitlers Whermacht; 1935-1945.
Jo Hedwig Teeuwisse (41 months ago | reply)
There is a difference between not knowing and not wanting to know.
We sometimes underestimate how easy it is to lie to ourselves and to turn a blind eye.
What happened in the camps was no real secret, I've read SD reports about people gossiping about it all over Berlin, hearing the stories from soldiers returning from the East.
Of course many choose not to believe these stories, many choose not to hear them.
StoffeH (41 months ago | reply)
Of course one also have to consider the party doctrine of Nazi-germany and the successful brainwash of almost the entire nation. But I feel that many veterans who say they didn't know of any warcrimes often lie, if not to us... exactly like you say; to them self.
lennardg (41 months ago | reply)
The Nazi ideology offered simple solutions to complex problems, it also opened up a conservative and rigid German society to the growing middle class who, through a career with the elite SS organsation, could advance to the nations highest offices.
From 1943 ethnic Germans from all over Europe were drafted into the Waffen-SS to fill its ranks - heavily depleted from the excessive losses on the Eastern front.
Rotation within the SS organisation was common, one example was Dr. Josef Mengele who started his career as a surgeon with the
SS-Wiking division on the Eastern front (the division was made up of scandinavian and Dutch volunteers and Germans) After being wounded he was deemed unfit for frontline service and managed to get a transfer to the Auschwitz camp where he became notorious for his medical experiment on prisoners.
Jo Hedwig Teeuwisse (41 months ago | reply)
Nazi ideology claimed to offer solutions but rarely had real solutions.
lennardg (41 months ago | reply)
It was, so far, (in my opinion) the best example of putting crime in political office.
StoffeH (41 months ago | reply)
I think that the number of comments this picture gets states how great it is. Lets forget the mans uniform and look at what it sais; there we have it: That is war.
Jo Hedwig Teeuwisse (41 months ago | reply)
It is impossible to forget the mans uniform.
lennardg (41 months ago | reply)
Let's hope he wasn't an European volunteer which would further complicate the moral aspect of it...considering that some of the European volunteers joined the Waffen SS based on their will to fight the Communism of Soviet-Russia. Fighting Communism is today considered a good thing to do - was this man in fact a freedom fighter in the struggle against communism?..
If he was an Estonian of Latvian volunteer, that's how some people would view him today.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harald_Nugiseks
Jo Hedwig Teeuwisse (41 months ago | reply)
To me it would not complicate the issue at all.
It does not matter where he came from, it matters what side he choose and what job he did.
Many people back then were anti communist (although the soviet union wasn't communist but Stalinist) but didn't fall for Hitlers anti communist rhetoric propaganda to join his side.
The enemy of my friend is my enemy is a line that only works on simple people.
Besides, you could join the fight against communism in many ways, no need to join a elite politically motivated unit.
And as soon as they send you to a camp as a guard, you should refuse the job, or desert.
Contrary to what most people believe you would not be shot for refusing that kind of job.
lennardg (41 months ago | reply)
I don't disagree, some men who wore the uniform of the Waffen SS
found refuge after WWII in the fascist dictatorship of Spain
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degrelle
-but others worked for the MI6 in democratic Britain...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfons_Rebane
- does that make the British fascists too?...or just pragmatic?..
Jo Hedwig Teeuwisse (41 months ago | reply)
Using or working with someone with a certain political background doesn't automatically make you one of them.
But yes I am sure the British, as most other governments at one time or another used fascist like means to reach a goal.
Of course also after the war ended many western countries suddenly forgot the depth they had towards the soviet union and turned on them during the cold war.
Sadly men of the SS but also common collaborators and criminals escaped justice because governments needed them to rebuild the country or to fight their dirty wars.
StoffeH (41 months ago | reply)
I'm pretty certain that a majority of the ones who fled from fascist Spain in the late 30s, never joined the SS or the Wermacht... Thou I can name a whole bunch who joined the British or the french foreign legion and continued the fight against fascism, a few hundred of them where German nationals who had enrolled in the socialist Thälmann battalion to fight for the Spanish republic. Sweden sold thousands of tons of iron ore to Germany, does that make Sweden(at the time) a fascist country? Now that we are speaking of the guy dead guy in the water wearing an SS uniform near the Dachau KZ. We don't know if he was a guard or a frontline "soldier"(being proud of once having been a frontline soldier I cant call the men of the SS soldiers), he wears the coat of a frontline SS"soldier" but geographical situation of his body is his predicament. Lee Miller named this photograph "Dead SS guard in canal, Dachau, Germany, 1945" maybe she had information about him that we don't have to today, maybe he had his soldiersbook on him; A document soldiers at the time needed to collect their pay witch also showed where he served. At the time Miller was a photojournalist and even thou she often took a more surreal point of view on things, her job was to show what happened at the front. I would rather think that Miller tells the truth with this photograph; He was in fact an SS-guard. A coat like that could have been taken of a dead soldier; it is camouflage and it would have been easier to hide and would probably kept him warm when he was trying to hide in some ditch somewhere... I know, everything I say is a speculation but until anyone here can name him and proof to us which unit he served in we can only trust the one who took the photograph... The photograph named; Dead SS guard in canal, Dachau, Germany, 1945.
Jo Hedwig Teeuwisse (41 months ago | reply)
Yes I agree, well said.
There were many soldiers in and near camps when these were liberated, not all of them were killed by the prisoners there or their liberators.
Most prisoners didn't have the strength to do harm to their guards even if they wanted to.
So if this guy is one of those that was beaten up (his nose seems damaged) and drowned I think chances are he was disliked for a reason.
But in the end all we know is what Miller wrote on the photo and we will have to accept that.
I was wondering though, a woman like Miller should have written a book about her life, such an amazing life.
Did she?
Perhaps she has written down what happened that day, can we find out?
StoffeH (41 months ago | reply)
I have been on "her"(I think its her sons) hompage a few times and it doesnt say anything about her having written a book. There are a few books for sale on the page, but none of them are written by her.
www.leemiller.co.uk/