Mauthausen Photo Album

This so-called Mauthausen Photo Album belonged to Bogdan Ivanovic, a Political Prisoner from Yugoslavia who was abducted from Belgrade in October 1942. He was imprisoned in Mauthausen concentration camp and issued the prisoner number 13575. Black and white photographs pasted in the album depict a narrative of the camp, highlighting its distinctive features as well as features common to concentration camps: electric fences, watch towers, inmates, suicide and escape victims, the crematorium and columns of naked prisoners at roll call. SS dignitaries such as Heinrich Himmler, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, August Eigruber and camp commander Franz Ziereis are captured inspecting Mauthausen in 1941.

How did Bogdan come to be in possession of such a remarkable artefact?

The photographs are attributed to the Erkennungsdienst (photographic laboratory/identification service). Five copies were made of every photograph and one delivered to SS-Oberscharführer, Karl Schulz. The four remaining copies were distributed to the SS headquarters in Berlin, Oranienburg, Vienna and Linz. However, Spanish prisoners Antonio García Alonso and Francisco Boix Campo, working in the photo laboratory, printed a sixth prohibited copy. We believe these rare copies to be the ones in Bogdan’s possession, perhaps acquired through his photographer friend in the camp.

Bogdan was liberated in May 1945 and he returned to Belgrade where he remained until his death in 1972. His wife Ana visited her sister, Jelena Ciufo, in Australia shortly after his death and brought the album with her. It remained in Jelena’s care until it was donated to the Sydney Jewish Museum in 2019.

Bogdan Ivanovic pasted his prisoner registration number 13575 on the front page, as if to declare “I was there”.