AI Technology Identifies Nazi Executioner in Infamous Holocaust Photograph After 80 Years

The victim in the haunting Holocaust image remains unidentified, while the Nazi soldier has now been confirmed.

One of the most disturbing Holocaust photographs shows a German soldier pointing a pistol at a kneeling man in formal attire, surrounded by troops and corpses in a pit. US-based German historian Jurgen Matthaus has potentially resolved the mystery of this Nazi's identity using artificial intelligence technology. The image is widely known as "The Last Jew in Vinnitsa."

In research published in Zeitschrift fur Geschichtswissenschaft, Matthaus identifies the SS soldier as Jakobus Onnen, who served in Einsatzgruppe C, a mobile killing squad that operated in the Soviet Union during 1941.

"According to technical experts, the algorithm produced an unusually high percentage match," Matthaus told The Guardian. He noted that Onnen was born in 1906 in the German village of Tichelwarf near the Dutch border and worked as a teacher of French, English, and physical education.

Through conventional archival research, peer input, and assistance from Bellingcat's open-source journalism volunteers, Matthaus established the massacre's date, location, and the responsible unit. He determined the mass shooting occurred on July 28, 1941, likely in early afternoon at Berdychiv's citadel. For years, Vinnytsia had been incorrectly identified as the location.

The significant breakthrough came when a reader, prompted by media coverage of Matthaus' initial findings, suggested Onnen—their wife's uncle—might be the gunman in the photograph.

While most of Onnen's Eastern Front correspondence was destroyed, his family preserved photographs that were analyzed using AI. The results showed a strong correlation, though not definitive due to the historical photo's limitations.

"AI experts inform me that historical photographs make it more difficult to achieve a 98 or 99.9 percent match" typically obtained in modern forensic analysis, explained Matthaus.

Supporting evidence for Onnen's identification included his Nazi Party membership predating Hitler's 1933 rise to power and his confirmed presence in Einsatzgruppe C. Onnen never advanced beyond a relatively low rank and died in combat in August 1943.

Matthaus theorized that Onnen was posing to impress in the photograph. "Understanding motivation is extremely challenging. I believe his pose and self-presentation were intended to make an impression," said Matthaus.

"In these murder units, participating in such killings was considered routine and didn't earn special recognition."

Having identified the perpetrator, Matthaus is now collaborating with Ukrainian historian Andrii Mahaletskyi to identify the victim using AI and Soviet-era records, though this remains a challenging endeavor.

The majority of the more than one million victims in occupied Soviet territory remain nameless, just as their killers intended. According to Matthaus, this image rivals Auschwitz's gate in revealing the Holocaust's horrific reality.