WWII Concentration Camp Liberation Archive
GUEST: My father was a, uh, World War II veteran and also an amateur photographer. So he took his camera to Europe and took pictures all along on their march. These pictures here are from Buchenwald in Germany. He was there when the, uh, concentration camp was liberated.
APPRAISER: And what relation does this doll have?
GUEST: Well, the pictures that he took, he couldn't just develop and send back. So, he bought this doll in France and opened the head on the back and stuffed in film canisters, which had these pictures on them. He shipped it back to my aunt, who was one year old then, and left a note saying, "Please do not let Darlene play with the doll." And my aunt never played with the doll. So...
APPRAISER: And do we know what unit he served in?
GUEST: He was in, uh, Patton's Third Army.
APPRAISER: Your dad was involved in two fairly significant liberations. He was at Ohrdruf, and that's April 4 of 1945, and then a week later, at Buchenwald. Ohrdruf was a satellite camp of Buchenwald. And Eisenhower came in to visit that camp. And when he saw that, that really redirected the focus and opened the eyes about what was going on inside the camps.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: The stark reality of it was just jaw-dropping.
GUEST: Yeah, yes.
APPRAISER: And when you brought these photos in, even to open those envelopes and look and see the images, they have a profound effect on you as a human being.
GUEST: For sure.
APPRAISER: You had a number of pictures of the atrocity. We're not going to display those...
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: ...out of respect to those that lost their lives.
GUEST: For sure.
APPRAISER: But these photographs out front here, face down, represent that. They are shocking and disturbing on a deep level.
GUEST: Harsh, right.
APPRAISER: These places existed within a mere kilometer or two...
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: ...of occupied towns.
GUEST: Of a town, sure.
APPRAISER: There were plenty of people who knew. There were plenty of people who thought that they were doing the right thing. That's the scary thing.
GUEST: Yes, right.
APPRAISER: Once you start seeing other people as something other than human beings, that's when truly terrible things can happen.
GUEST: Yes, sir.
APPRAISER: One of the first things that happened was, General Eisenhower ordered that the local German civilians be brought in to see what had been happening.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: Here, we see them digging graves...
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: ...for executed prisoners. And then, your dad has some annotations on the back that explain what the ones on the far side here indicate. You've got a woman coming out just in complete tears. Because she's either in disbelief or shock or horror or whatever. She's had that real reaction...
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: ...that any true human being will have. And the woman to her right is laughing and making fun of her.
GUEST: Yeah.
APPRAISER: According to your father's notation.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: Which, she hasn't gone through yet. The other woman's coming out. You hope for her soul that she had a change of heart...
GUEST: Right, right.
APPRAISER: ...once she was in there. These are other photographs of the German civilians being forced to witness these atrocities.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: Your dad was so compelled that he felt the need to actually break all the rules and smuggle those images home to make sure that they were seen. One of the most disturbing things about the history of the Holocaust is that there were non-believers at the time.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: And one of the truly most disturbing things is that there are non-believers today.
GUEST: Today.
APPRAISER: Historians' best estimates at this point are that over six million Jews perished in the Holocaust and another six million or so others died, as well.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: They enslaved the entirety of the continent. They shot Slavs, uh, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, uh, petty criminals. It's hard to put a value on something like this, because we're talking about cultural value and historical value.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: But let's say, for example, you wanted to have this insured. We are comfortable with an insurance value on this set at $10,000.
GUEST: Oh, my God. That's amazing.
APPRAISER: Breaks our heart. I know it broke my heart looking at these images.
GUEST: Yeah. They're powerful.
$10,000 Insurance
Featured In
episode
Grant's Farm, Hour 2
ANTIQUES ROADSHOW harvests hidden treasures at historic Grant’s Farm in St. Louis, MO. — Mon, May 4, 2026
Historical Artifacts
appraisal
appraisal
Frank Zappa Painting, ca. 1960
appraisal
Vermont Militia Coat, ca. 1815
appraisal
Dr. Seuss “Kangaroo Bird," ca. 1938
Understanding Our Appraisals
Executive producer Marsha Bemko shares her tips for getting the most out of ANTIQUES ROADSHOW.
Value can change: The value of an item is dependent upon many things, including the condition of the object itself, trends in the market for that kind of object, and the location where the item will be sold. These are just some of the reasons why the answer to the question "What's it worth?" is so often "It depends."
Note the date: Take note of the date the appraisal was recorded. This information appears in the upper left corner of the page, with the label "Appraised On." Values change over time according to market forces, so the current value of the item could be higher, lower, or the same as when our expert first appraised it.
Context is key: Listen carefully. Most of our experts will give appraisal values in context. For example, you'll often hear them say what an item is worth "at auction," or "retail," or "for insurance purposes" (replacement value). Retail prices are different from wholesale prices. Often an auctioneer will talk about what she knows best: the auction market. A shop owner will usually talk about what he knows best: the retail price he'd place on the object in his shop. And though there are no hard and fast rules, an object's auction price can often be half its retail value; yet for other objects, an auction price could be higher than retail. As a rule, however, retail and insurance/replacement values are about the same.
Verbal approximations: The values given by the experts on ANTIQUES ROADSHOW are considered "verbal approximations of value." Technically, an "appraisal" is a legal document, generally for insurance purposes, written by a qualified expert and paid for by the owner of the item. An appraisal usually involves an extensive amount of research to establish authenticity, provenance, composition, method of construction, and other important attributes of a particular object.
Opinion of value: As with all appraisals, the verbal approximations of value given at ROADSHOW events are our experts' opinions formed from their knowledge of antiques and collectibles, market trends, and other factors. Although our valuations are based on research and experience, opinions can, and sometimes do, vary among experts.
Appraiser affiliations: Finally, the affiliation of the appraiser may have changed since the appraisal was recorded. To see current contact information for an appraiser in the ROADSHOW Archive, click on the link below the appraiser's picture. Our Appraiser Index also contains a complete list of active ROADSHOW appraisers and their contact details and biographies.
