This photo shows an autopsy photograph of Menachem Taffel, who had been gassed at Natzweiler. His body was one of 86 found at Reichsuniversität Strasbourg upon its liberation, whereupon autopsies were carried out by Professor Camille Simonin.
Researcher Hans-Joachim Lang describes in this article (p.378) how Taffel was identified in the 1960s:
There can therefore be no doubt that Taffel, shown above, had suffered an 'induced' death, and that gas was used presumably to ensure no damage to the skull.
Researcher Hans-Joachim Lang describes in this article (p.378) how Taffel was identified in the 1960s:
At the end of the 1960s, when the district attorney of Frankfurt initiated inquiries into Bruno Beger and Hans Fleischhacker, the former concentration camp prisoner, Hermann Langbein, saw a photograph that had been taken during the autopsies among the collected evidence. This photograph depicted a body with a number on his left forearm (Fig. 6). With the support of the archives in Auschwitz he succeeded in identifying the dead man as Max Menachem Taffel. Menachem Taffel, a Jew born in Galicia, was last known to have been a milkman who had lived with his family inThis finding converged with documentation presented in the Nuremberg case against Rudolf Brandt. On February 29th, 1942, Sievers had written to Brandt regarding the procedure to be used for obtaining human skulls for experimentation:
Berlin. From there he was deported to Auschwitz along with his wife and his 14-year old daughter on March 12, 1943. Apparently no one knew that the autopsy protocols had been preserved and thus Menachem Taffel remained for decades the only victim, for whom the prisoner’s number had also been associated with a name.
Following the subsequently induced death of the Jew, whose head must not be damaged, he will separate the head from the torso and will forward it to its point of destination in a preserving fluid in a well-sealed tin container especially made for this purpose [source]On June 23rd, 1943, Sievers advised Eichmann on how these Jews would be procured from Auschwitz:
With reference to your letter of 25 September 1942, IV B 4 3576/42 g 1488, and the personal talks which have taken place in the meantime on the above matter, you are informed that the coworker in this office who was charged with the execution of the above-mentioned special task, SS Hauptsturmfuehrer Dr. Bruno Beger, ended his work in the Auschwitz concentration camp on 15 June 1943 because of the existing danger of infectious diseases.
A total of 115 persons were worked on, 79 of whom were Jews, 2 Poles, 4 Asiatics, and 30 Jewesses. At present, these prisoners are separated according to sex and each group is accommodated in a hospital building of the Auschwitz concentration camp and are in quarantine.
For further processing of the selected persons an immediate transfer to the Natzweiler concentration camp is now imperative, this must be accelerated in view of the danger of infectious diseases in Auschwitz. Enclosed is a list containing the names of the selected persons.
It is requested that the necessary directives be issued.
Since with the transfer of the prisoners to Natzweiler the danger of spreading diseases exists, it is requested that an immediate shipment of disease-free and clean prisoners’ clothing for 80 men and 30 women be ordered sent from Natzweiler to Auschwitz.Evidence of the gassing includes the "Bautagebuch" [building diary] shown here and Kramer's interrogation [here]. Evidence of the gas chamber itself is here.
There can therefore be no doubt that Taffel, shown above, had suffered an 'induced' death, and that gas was used presumably to ensure no damage to the skull.