Aerial Photographs of Auschwitz

December 12, 1944

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Enlargement of a section of a photograph of Birkenau in the snow taken by an American F-5 plane from the 5^th Photographic Reconnaissance Group of the 15^th Air Force on December 12^th, 1944 (Sortie no. 5PG/15SG/994). Further to an order issued by Himmler at the beginning of November to halt the gassings, the extermination installations were dismantled in November-December 1944, as can be seen in the photograph. We can see the ruins of Crematorium IV, which was destroyed in the Sonderkommando uprising of October 7^th, 1944, and the decorative gardens planted at the end of each block in the BII area of the camp, which remained there throughout.