In my recent article I pointed out that the famous swimming pool photo that was taken in Novaky concentration camp is indeed indicative of the treatment jews received broadly speaking in the German concentration camp – especially as the larger German camps while the transit camps were rather more mixed and often badly run (often by local Axis allies rather than the Germans themselves) – (1) but while I pointed out that Yad Vashem (2) and Reuters (3) have both authenticated the photo as real and confirmed that Novaky did indeed have a swimming pool for the inmates.
What I didn’t do is add further detail demonstrating that this is indeed a photo from the Novaky camp.
For the record this is famous swimming pool photo that was taken in Novaky concentration camp:
However, we have another photo of this same swimming pool – not listed as a swimming pool being constructed but rather as a wall being constructed at the Novaky camp in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s collection: (4)
You can see from the structure of the pool, the same hill in the background, the barracks with the white/light roof on the left of both images, the wire camp fencing in the background as well as the pool stairs in the deep end that this is the same structure just while it was under construction rather than while it was in use.
This is another photo of Novaky while it was under construction sometime in 1942 from Yad Vashem’s collection this time and we can once again see the similar buildings with the white/light roofs, and we can see the similar tree line from the swimming pool photographs as well as the similar profile of the hills: (5)
We can this see from this that the Novaky swimming pool photo matches perfectly with other known images of the Novaky concentration camp and thus we can put to bed any potential quibbling that the photo ‘isn’t from a concentration camp at all’ which I expect will arise at some point.
References
(1) See my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/understanding-the-swimming-pool-photo
(2) https://wwv.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%205969.pdf
(3) https://www.reuters.com/article/fact-check/photo-shows-pool-in-slovak-labour-camp-not-nazi-concentration-camp-idUSL1N36V2TO/
(4) https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1162353
(5) https://wwv.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/communities/bratislava/images/during/camps/01.jpg