If the purpose of many of Germany's concentration camps, especially near the end of the war was to kill as quickly as possible, why did they bother taking mugshots of the prisoners? Was this practice only adhered to in work camps, or also in the annihilation camps, and did the camp administrators slack off on documenting all of the new prisoners as it became more apparent that Germany could not win the war?
They took the pictures incase they needed to identify someone, inside the camp, or in case someone managed to escape
Initially they aimed to photograph every single prisoner, however as the war continued, depending on where you arrived, chances were you were going straight to the “showers”.... at least that is what they were told
Since the Germans attempted to burn as much evidence as possible, it’s hard to know how the administration went in the later years, the only reason we still have some of these photographs today is because the prisoners that were tasked with burning them took great risks trieng to preserve these documents
Ps: English is my third languege so I apologize for spelling mistakes