A Historian Finally Identified the Nazi in This Infamous 84-Year-Old Photograph
created: March 16, 2026, 2:31 p.m. | updated: March 17, 2026, 10:24 p.m.
Here’s what you will learn when you read this story:A figure in a photograph of an infamous WWII massacre known as “The Last Jew in Vinnitsa” has long gone unidentified.
Jakobus Onnen, a former teacher and member of Einsatzgruppen C, has been identified as the Nazi gunman who posed for a photo during a massacre at the citadel of Berdychiv.
But one historian has spent years trying to determine the identity of the man holding the gun—the cold-blooded, bespectacled killer in the infamous image.
Now, thanks in part to AI-assisted analysis, the gunman has likely been identified as Jakobus Onnen, a teacher from Tichelwarf.
That Jakobus Onnen is the man photographed holding the gun is no longer in dispute for Matthäus.
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