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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

The Vox Box

The sad, human side of the SS


United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
PHOTO CAPTION: Karl Höcker, adjutant to the commandant of Auschwitz, and SS auxiliaries relaxing at a recreation lodge near the camp.

Last December the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum was given a photo album by a former United States Army intelligence officer.
This album was only 16 pages long, but it held photos that showed a side of the most notorious of the Nazi death camps, Auschwitz, that the public doesn't see.

Celebrating.

Check out the video album set up at the New York Times. It's amazing:

The album...

For example, one of the Höcker pictures, shot on July 22, 1944, shows a group of cheerful young women who worked as SS communications specialists eating bowls of fresh blueberries. One turns her bowl upside down and makes a mock frown because she has finished her portion.

On that day, said Judith Cohen, a historian at the Holocaust museum in Washington, 150 new prisoners arrived at the Birkenau site. Of that group, 21 men and 12 women were selected for work, the rest transported immediately to the gas chambers. By Neil A. Lewis/NYT

Full article...



In 2006, then-editor Steve Smith of The Spokesman-Review had the idea of starting a publication for an often forgotten audience: teenagers. The Vox Box was a continuation of the Vox, an all-student staffed newspaper published by The Spokesman-Review. High school student journalists who staffed the Vox made all content decisions as they learn about the trade of journalism. This blog's mission was to give students an opportunity to publish their voices. The Vox Box and the Vox wrapped up in June 2009, but you can follow former staffers' new blog at http://voxxiez.blogspot.com.