US EditionAI helps German historian identify Nazi killer in infamous Holocaust image
Jürgen Matthäus confirmed Jakobus Oehnen's identity using AI, linking him to over 100,000 civilian deaths during Nazi operations in Ukraine in 1941.
- German historian Jürgen Matthäus identified the SS officer in the 1941 photograph as Jakobus Oehnen, while the image known as 'The Last Jew in Vinnitsa' was taken on July 28, 1941 in Berdychiv.
- The killings were carried out by the SS as part of mobile operations by Einsatzgruppe C in the occupied Soviet Union, causing over a million casualties.
- A Wehrmacht officer's diary and a photo negative from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum archives provided corroborating evidence, and Matthäus used AI to support the identification process.
- His findings are published in Zeitschrift für geschichtswissenschaft after a preliminary investigation released last year drew German media attention, and Matthäus is collaborating with Ukrainian colleague Andrii Mahaletskyi using Soviet-era records to identify the victim.
- Matthäus noted the growth of digital tools and AI, adding that `participating in a killing like that was taken for granted and didn't give you any kind of bonus points in these murder units.
14 Articles
14 Articles
The SS soldier about to kill a man in front of a mass grave, in the world-famous image of “the last Jew in Vinnytsia,” was a German teacher named Jakobus Onnen, according to historian Jürgen Matthäus. The executioner has been identified using AI, journalistic methods, and a relative.
The German historian first realized that the wrong location had been associated with the image for decades, and then, with the help of a reader, he came up with the name of the executioner.
Holocaust Mystery Unraveled: Executioner in Infamous Vinnitsa Photo Identified
BERLIN — German historian Jürgen Matthäus has identified the SS officer in the infamous 1941 photograph known as “The Last Jew in Vinnitsa.” The image, shown at Adolf Eichmann’s 1961 trial, depicts a kneeling Jewish man moments before execution beside a mass grave in Berdychiv, Ukraine. Matthäus’ research confirms the shooter as Jakobus Oehnen, a […]
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