Anybody ever seen a truly solid provenance, attribution, whatever, for this photograph? It crops up quite a bit, usually captioned as former guard & prisoner with a variety of camps named, but despite a fair amount of reverse image sort of hunting i've seen nothing I'd call an acceptable or confirmatory source. Something about it makes me want to dig deeper. Vague feeling it isn't quite right as usually presented, but equally little to confirm any different circumstances. Carcano rifle? British/Commonwealth sort of uniform in the background. Italy?
The swastika armband was worn by Hitler Youth - but this man looks older. So he could be "Organisation Todt" - to my knowledge they also wore this type of armband. Or - possibly - a member of the Volkssturm with the armnand as a makeshift attempt to display that he is a combattant?
It does look to be a posed photograph, and I think that the man with the rifle looks very healthy for what he purports to be. He may be one of the liberating British soldiers recreating a scenario that wasn't photographed when it occurred.
There is a searchable archive here... US Holocaust Memorial museum... Search Results And I wonder if they have examples there of the same in their holdings. The photos are combined, I think, with what information they have and this is added to / updated through research so it might be a starting point?
I think you are right about the Carcano. There were a lot of them around in Germany in 1945. Some were converted to single shot 7.92 x 57 Mauser. One of my dad's bring backs is a Carcano 91 carbine with the folding bayonet. I'll post pictures of it when I have a chance. Something does smell fishy about the picture.
Most striking thing for me is that the "now on the receiving end guard" still has his wristwatch (after weapons that would be the first thing to go). Definitely "posed" methinks. Kind regards, always, Jim.
Would also say Carcano Rifle with M91 Bayonet. The Wehrmacht had plenty of these after the disarmament of the Italian army, most of them for 2nd line units, the carbines went to the very last front line units in ´45. The image itself appears posed...
It does not come as much of a surprise that the image is posed ... lots of good (and famous) pictures involve a bit of posing. And if you look at moving images there's even more posing, re-enacting, "doing it again for the camera"... So - in my view - posing for a photo does not necessarily merit any criticism. It can very well represent an actual situation. The question is: What caption is being added, what is attributed to the photo, which context is suggested and is this really the actual context? That's where things can get fishy. I am not surprised that a liberated camp inmate would grab a Carcano rifle while an Allied soldier is looking on... it is certainly representative of the situation in Germany in April or May 1945.
A member of the "Organization Todt" (OT). Their original task was to build bunkers and everything the Wehrmacht needed in occupied Europe. Usually elderly men were drafted into the OT - mostly men from various trades connected to building and construction work. They also oversaw forced labour and camp inmates working on construction sites. The armband with the swastika leads me to believe that the man on the photo above belonged to the OT. Which would make sense - as they also had a connection to prisoners and slave labourers.
Ran it through several Reverse searches, Yandex, Baidu, Google etc. Very earliest appearance on the web I can find is this from June 2011: Just my grandfather aiming a gun on a Nazi soldier : pics. Original, if original it be, from Imgur: Custom date range search keeps coming & going for me on Google (WTF?) so can't dig into this specific file's posting history yet.
I'm inclined to agree with you about Italy, Adam...That shallow pitched barn roof is not Northern European. The lighting too gives it a southern feel.
