Germany on Wednesday handed over 23 photos taken by a nurse in the Warsaw Ghetto to a Polish museum after her niece showed them to President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
The black-and-white street scenes, including one of bodies being transported on a handcart, were handed over to the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in a ceremony at Berlin's Bellevue Palace.
"Even though we will probably never be able to truly come to terms with this period of history, we can and must ensure that the story these photos tell is not forgotten," Steinmeier said.
The photos were taken by Helmy Spethmann, a nurse from Eckernfoerde in northern Germany who was stationed at a military hospital in Warsaw in 1941 when she was 50 years old.
They were discovered years later by Spethmann's niece, Ingelene Rodewald, tucked away in the cover of an old photo album.
Rodewald, now 102, showed the photos to Steinmeier during a meet-and-greet in Eckernfoerde in June 2023.
Polish Auschwitz survivor Marian Turski, 97, president of the International Auschwitz Committee, thanked Steinmeier for the photos.
"The Nazis destroyed the Jewish people. The Nazis destroyed most of our material goods. That is why it is so important to preserve all material and cultural goods and evidence from this period," he said.
The photos show scenes from different seasons, suggesting that Spethmann visited the area several times.
"Why she did what she did, what she thought, whether she consciously wanted to bear witness to the horror -- we don't know. She did not confide in anyone and led a reclusive life until her death," Steinmeier said.
The Nazis set up the Warsaw Ghetto a year after they invaded Poland in 1939, confining some 450,000 Jews to a space of just over three square kilometres (1.2 square miles).
It was the largest of the World War II ghettos.
Many Jews died inside of starvation and disease, while most of the rest were sent to the Treblinka death camp to the east of the Polish capital.
The Warsaw Jews launched an armed revolt against the Nazis on April 19, 1943, the largest single act of Jewish resistance against the Germans during World War II.
Steinmeier last year became the first German president to speak at commemorations of the uprising, asking forgiveness for the crimes committed there.