Unmasked after 80 years – the Nazi executioner in infamous WWII photo: Historian uses AI to uncover identity of killer in ‘The Last Jew of Vinnytsia’ image
The mask of a Nazi executioner in the famous photograph of the Second World War was revealed using Artificial Intelligence for the first time in 80 years.
The man holding a gun to the head of a kneeling Jewish victim in the harrowing photograph known as ‘The Last Jew of Vinnytsia’ has been identified by a historian as Schutzstaffel (SS) officer Jakobus Onnen, who was 33 at the time of the murder.
In the harrowing photo, long considered one of the most memorable images of World War II, a bespectacled German soldier points his gun at a man kneeling next to a mass grave while several other soldiers watch.
The victim’s name was never found, but the photo, thought to have been taken in 1941, came to symbolize the systematic massacre of Jews in Europe.
The name of the murderer was revealed by Jürgen Matthäus, who has been studying the Holocaust for decades. He says he is 99 percent sure that Onnen is the executioner.
Matthäus had previously pinpointed the exact location and timing of the mass execution seen in the photograph first made public during the trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in 1961.
The photo was distributed by an American news agency after it was handed over to a Holocaust survivor shortly after his liberation in 1945.
At the time, the execution was thought to have taken place in Vinnytsia, about 200 kilometers southwest of Kiev.
However, a diary kept by Austrian soldier Walter Materna later revealed that the massacre actually took place in the city of Berychiv, between Kiev and Vinnytsya.
The heartbreaking photo shows a German soldier looking off into the distance while pointing a gun at a man kneeling next to a mass grave.
The revelation gained renewed attention in Germany in 2023, causing a retired teacher to contact Matthäus.
The man said the attacker in the photo bore a striking resemblance to his wife’s uncle.
Although he did not reveal his uncle’s name, he did provide important biographical details, including his place and year of birth.
Other important information included his entry into the SS in 1932 and his death fighting against partisans in 1943.
Using this information, Matthäus searched historical archives and identified the man as Jakobus Onnen.
Before the war, Onnen taught French, English and gymnastics at the Deutsche Kolonialschule in Witzenhausen.
He became fully active within the SS in 1939 and served as a guard at the Dachau concentration camp before being sent to the Eastern Front with Einsatzgruppe C in 1941. The unit was tasked with killing Jews before Hitler’s visit.
It is estimated that the unit massacred more than 100,000 people by 1942.
Matthäus said that the combination of artificial intelligence technology, historical records and personal accounts made it possible to reveal the mask of the executioner behind one of the most chilling images in history, a photograph that represents the brutality of Nazi Germany’s crimes against humanity.
Last month, the historian said detailed analysis of the background in the painting gave him the exact location of the crime scene. He then used facial recognition to identify Onnen.
Born in 1906, Onnen came from an educated family and joined the Nazi Party in 1933. He was killed in action on August 12, 1943, in the Zhytomyr region of present-day Ukraine.
His name still appears on a memorial plaque for fallen soldiers in the town of Weener, near his birthplace of Tichelwarf in East Frisia, near the Dutch border.
Authorities are now considering removing his name or using other methods to remove it from the monument.
Execution of Polish hostages by German soldiers. Many graphic images depicting the Nazis’ treatment of victims have been made public over the years.
Many sensational images of Nazi inhumane treatment have been made public over the years.
One of these involves a survivor fanning the flames of a crematorium containing human remains. Others show the corpses of malnourished victims waiting to be slaughtered by Hitler’s army.
Many of the images published in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum were distributed as part of former president Dwight Eisenhower’s policy of educating Americans about Hitler’s atrocities.
