Color Photos of Kutno, Poland, 1939-40, on the Brink of Annihilation

Via Kottke, here are color photos of residents of Kutno, Poland, shortly after it was captured by the German army in September 1939; it was then turned into a ghetto and ultimately its Jewish residents shipped to their deaths.  The photos are by  Hugo Jaeger, who was an ardent Nazi who sometimes served as Hitler's photographer. Kutno, which is almost smack dab in the center of Poland, was the scene of a critical battle between the Germans and the Poles during the German invasion, and that may have been why Jaeger was there.

Jaeger's photographs are surprisingly humane, and Life magazine, which has a spread of the photos on its website, speculates why Jaeger took the photos in this manner (scroll down on link site to read).  Suffice it to say we don't really know.  We do know that most of the people in these photos would be dead in a short while due to disease, starvation, or outright murder by the Nazis (mostly in Chełmno extermination camp).

Jaeger's photographs -- which mostly show an extensive history of his involvement with Hitler, in color -- were almost discovered with Jaeger when he was captured by the Allies in 1945 (scroll down on link site to read the story).  Their documentation of his conduct could have led to his prosecution. He kept them hidden for 20 years, first in jars he buried, then in a Swiss bank account.  He sold (some of?) them to Life Magazine for publication in 1965.