As an accompaniment to my recent and detailed analysis of ‘The Last Jew of Vinnitsa’ Einsatzgruppen Photograph (1) I thought I would also re-produce Udo Walendy’s commentary on this photograph and why it is a forgery – Walendy didn’t have the luxury of some of the more recent academic analysis of (and commentary on) this photograph as well as the ability to look into its origins and provenance - as I have, but Walendy is invaluable in reproducing the original photograph from 1957 and also providing extended critical commentary on the various versions of it that appeared up until the time of his analysis’ publication in its second edition in 1989 as ‘Forged “War Crime” Photos Malign the German Nation’. (2)
I have reproduced the photographs he is commenting on from this work here as well as his analysis although I have to re-arrange the order of the commentary and the photograph in allow Walendy’s commentary to flow and show what he is referring to at each given stage, but I have refrained from commentary on his analysis as I felt that was largely unnecessary.
Walendy’s section on ‘The Last Jew of Vinnitsa’ Einsatzgruppen Photograph is as follows:
“SS shoots Poles in a sand pit.” Published with this text in R. Schnabel “Macht ohne Moral” Frankfurt/M. 1957 Roederberg Verlag, p. 307.
This is a crudely fabricated picture. Technically such a picture cannot be taken. The front part can only be taken from above and the back part can only be taken from below, but to have both halves on one picture is impossible. The left top part of the picture shows that the whole group of military personnel was cut out and has been stuck onto the picture and has been beset with unnatural shadows. It also shows that some background lighting is glaringly white, others toned with colour - that the legs of the soldier on the left, behind the “gunner”, besides being anatomically wrong - do not fit to the head behind. The light reflections contradict themselves and are unnatural; this is also to be noted on the bodies and on the Pole. Compare his glaringly white hand with the black in the bodies and on the Pole. Compare his glaringly white hand with the black in which his legs disappear. On none of the figures’ left arm is the eagle visible, nor are the SS-runes on the collars.
This picture, as comparison, is an enlargement of a genuine photo of a German soldiers’ grave in Russia, taken from the book of the Welsermühl Verlag, Wels, Austria, “Der Zweite Weltkrieg in seiner rauhen Wirklichkeit - Ein Fotodokumentarbericht”, no year, p. 363.
This genuine photo shows clearly how the perspective has to be laid out for be laid out for an analogous reproduction of a picture.
“Shooting of Polish Jews by the SS” published with this this text in “Der Zweite Weltkrieg in Bildern und Dokumenten” by Hans-Adolf Jacobsen and Hans Dollinger, Vol. 1, Der Europaeische Krieg 1939 – 1941, Verlag: Kurt Desch, Muenchen, Vienna, Basel, 1962 p. 100. Published also in “Der Spiegel” No. 51/1966 p. 86.
The picture on page 42 [the one above; I have here switched the commentary from p. 41 referring to the version of the photograph on p. 42 to allow the reader to better understand what Walendy is referring to – KR] is a second version of the picture on page 40 [the previous version of this photograph above from 1957 – KR]. The left group of soldiers has been cut off. The soldiers now visible on the left received new heads. Behind the soldier in the middle, with the curiously black eyes, another, partially covered soldier appears. The soldier on the right of the tank gunner also received a new head, but it was still forgotten to mount his feet and body anatomically correct. And then the gunner! For safety’s sake, he has drawn completely new- this time with glasses. Note the bright cap and the trousers which are light between the legs in comparison to the background (other way around in the 3rd picture [the version of this photograph below - KR]). It may be mentioned that the body parts and the face and hair of the Pole have also been changed as well as the ground.
“Execution by a shot in the neck in the year 1940” published with this text in “Das Gesicht unseres Jahrhunderts - 60 Jahre Zeitgeschehen in mehr als 600 Bildern” by Milo Dor - Reinhard Fedemann, Econ Verlag Duesseldorf, Lizenzausgabe des Forum Verlages Wien 1960 р. 168.
The foreword of this book says:
“In the selection of pictures pictures, we tried to use clearly reproductive, live and representative pictures for the representation of the important trends of our times.”
Firstly it is an infamy describe this to picture as “representative of the important trends of our times” and secondly, this “live, clearly-reproductive photo” is not even a photograph, but a crudely fabricated picture (3rd version [the one above – KR]) which has been taken from the picture on p. 40 and 42 [the first and second versions of this photograph above – KR]. The “SS-gunner” is changed again, his uniform is much darker and the background has been lightened. The light reflections on the suit, in the face and on the hair of the Pole are more clearly defined. The soldier directly behind him, with the curiously dark eyes has disappeared, instead, there is a much smaller on in his place, so that the black of the eyes of the previous soldier has now become the cap of the new one. The soldier on the left has received a dark face, like all others, and the shadows on his uniform have changed. The legs which are visible in the picture do not all fit to the bodies of the soldiers. Compare the boots and the right trouser leg of the executioner with the shadow in the sand next to it and the light (dark in the original) uniform of the soldiers behind. The eagle of the tank soldier is not visible anymore. That it was forgotten to draw in the SS-runes, while the epaulettes of an “Unterscharführer” are shown, is only a technical mistake.
Typically, the forgers pretend to know with the last picture, the date exactly: “It was in the year 1940”.’
References
(1) See my article here: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/the-myth-and-reality-of-the-last
(2) Udo Walendy, 1989, ‘Forged “War Crime” Photos Malign the German Nation’, 2nd Edition, Verlag fur Volkstum und Zeitgeschichtsforschung: Vlotho, pp. 40-44