Dad's World War II Photos

I grew up in the USA Midwest, forty years ago. I always knew about the scary pictures at the end of a certain family photo album, and I'll always remember being scolded for looking: "You'll have nightmares!"

Mom passed away in 1998. While sorting her belongings I found the photo album with Dad's World War II snapshots, but the grisly pages had been torn out.

Eight years later I found four of the original shots, right where Mom had hidden them.

These photos were taken in Germany by my father, an Army Master Sergeant who served in World War II from 1942 until 1945. The prints are small in size, and monochrome. They were developed on paper 3.5" wide x 3.25" high, with scalloped edges. The actual print area was 3" x 2.5".

My Dad was left-handed, preferring to write in an unusual back-slanted block printing style. On the back of each snapshot he wrote, "Not For Publication".

In case you don't know what you're looking at, it's obviously a former German concentration camp.

For the 22 years I knew my Dad, he never once mentioned World War II.