Four of the most famous photos taken in Birkenau were photos #280 #281 #282 and #283. Taken by one of the Sonderkommandos forced to work in the gas chambers in Birkenau, two of the images are shot from inside one of the gas chambers while the other two are shot outside.

The Sonderkommando photographer is usually referred to only as Alex, a Jewish prisoner from Greece. Along with the help of four other Sonderkommandos, the men were able to capture the monstrous acts and then smuggle the photos out of Auschwitz Birkenau via the Polish underground.

The images were hidden in a toothpaste tube with the important instructions to tell everyone of what the men were witnessing in the day to day duties.

Attached was a note with the instructions to tell people what was happening.

The photos were taken within 15-30 minutes of each other.

Photo #280 was taken from inside the gas chamber and is of the bodies waiting to be burned.

Photo #281 shows the bodies waiting to be burned in an outdoor fire pit.

Photo #282 shows women being taken to the gas chamber from the woods where they were just forced to undress.

Photo #283, shot from the hip and too high, is of the trees near the gas chamber.

These four photos are the only photos taken by the Sonderkommando, and although there are hundreds of photos to document the horrific living conditions within the camps and the entirety of the atrocities of the Holocaust, these photos are unique.

They are a different perspective, taken by a Jewish prisoner of another Jewish prisoner. These photos were taken inside, at the very center of the horror, the belly of the beast. There are no other visual photos or material that exist like images labeled #280 #281 #282 and #283.

The UN General Assembly designated January 27, the date that Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated in 1945, as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. This annual day of commemoration is to honor and remember the six million Jewish victims and the millions of other victims of Nazism.

The photos belong to @AuschwitzMuseum, Memorial and Museum of Auschwitz-Birkenau.