World History

mahatmakanejeeves

(67,537 posts) Tue Nov 4, 2025, 10:19 PM Nov 4

A man sits before a pit of the dead. Nazi soldiers surround him--one aims a gun at his head.

Bellingcat
‪@bellingcat.com‬

A man sits before a pit of the dead. Nazi soldiers surround him—one aims a gun at his head. For decades, no one knew who they were or where this photo was taken. Now, new digital tools and help from our community may finally reveal the truth behind this haunting Holocaust image🧵

A famous and harrowing image from the holocaust showing a man awaiting his death by a Nazi gun above a pit of the deceased.
The bodies of the fallen have been obscured by Bellingcat.
ALT
October 28, 2025 at 1:00 PM

A man sits before a pit of the dead. Nazi soldiers surround himâ€”one aims a gun at his head. For decades, no one knew who they were or where this photo was taken. Now, new digital tools and help from our community may finally reveal the truth behind this haunting Holocaust imageðŸ§µ
— Bellingcat (@bellingcat.com) 2025-10-28T17:00:17.496Z

3 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

A man sits before a pit of the dead. Nazi soldiers surround him--one aims a gun at his head. (Original Post) mahatmakanejeeves Nov 4 OP

Monsters UpInArms Nov 4 #1

Those guys didnt hide their faces IbogaProject Nov 5 #2

I noticed this photo, often labelled *The Last Jew in Vinnitsa* in the wiki artticle on the appalachiablue Nov 12 #3

UpInArms

(53,754 posts)

1. Monsters

Reply to mahatmakanejeeves (Original post)

Tue Nov 4, 2025, 10:34 PM

Nov 4

and again, today, we have monsters roaming our streets

IbogaProject

(5,434 posts)

2. Those guys didnt hide their faces

Reply to UpInArms (Reply #1)

Wed Nov 5, 2025, 04:13 AM

Nov 5

Whereas ICE & Russian police do hide behind masks.

appalachiablue

(43,692 posts)

3. I noticed this photo, often labelled *The Last Jew in Vinnitsa* in the wiki artticle on the

Reply to mahatmakanejeeves (Original post)

Wed Nov 12, 2025, 10:26 AM

Nov 12

Einsatzgruppen Trial, part of the Nuremburg Trials.

The photo is on the lower right side of the wiki article section labelled - 'Quotes from the Judgement.'

(I included this wiki article in my recent post here on Ben Ferencz, the American lawyer in charge of the Einsatzgruppen Trial, 1947-48).

I'm glad to see that new research is ongoing to uncover more about the the origin and history of this haunting WW2 photo of mass murder.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einsatzgruppen_trial

.. (Excerpt) The Einsatzgruppen were SS mobile death squads, operating behind the front line in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe. From 1941 to 1945, they murdered around 2 million people; 1.3 million Jews, up to 250,000 Romani, and around 500,000 so-called "partisans", people with disabilities, political commissars, Slavs, homosexuals and others.[3][4]
---------
** Wiki. The Last Jew in Vinnitsa.
The Last Jew in Vinnitsa is a photograph taken during the Holocaust in Ukraine showing an unknown Jewish man—probably on 28 July 1941 in Berdichev and not Vinnitsa[1]—about to be shot dead by a member of the Einsatzgruppen—possibly Jakobus Onnen, a member of Einsatzgruppe C, a mobile death squad of the German SS. The victim is kneeling beside a mass grave already containing bodies; behind, a group of SS and Reich Labor Service men watch.[2]

History. The photograph was circulated in 1961 by United Press (UPI) during the trial of Adolf Eichmann.[3] UPI had received it from Al Moss (b. 1910), a Polish Jew who acquired it in May 1945 shortly after he was liberated from Allach concentration camp by the American 3rd Army.[3][4] Moss, living in Chicago in 1961, wanted people "to know what went on in Eichmann's time".[3] The UPI copy was published over a full page of The Forward.[5]...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Jew_in_Vinnitsa

Reply to this discussion