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AI-Aided Research Identifies SS Officer Jakobus Onnen as Gunman in Iconic WWII Photo

The finding combines AI image analysis with archival records to reach near-certain attribution.

Overview

  • Historian Jürgen Matthäus reports about 99% confidence that the shooter in the image known as 'The Last Jew of Vinnitsa' was SS officer Jakobus Onnen.
  • The photo’s setting has been reattributed to Berdychiv, Ukraine, on July 28, 1941, and linked to Einsatzgruppe C operations.
  • Volunteers from Bellingcat conducted AI-assisted forensic comparisons using family photographs supplied after a tip to the researcher.
  • Archival evidence places Onnen in the SS, including service at Dachau and deployment to the Eastern Front, and records his death in 1943.
  • The identification is presented as a scholarly conclusion rather than a legal judgment, and the kneeling victim remains unnamed with further research planned.