Because Nazi ideology placed a high value on physical strength, exercise became an important part of the Nazi regime’s public health programs. Nazi public health officials urged the entire German nation to exercise regularly, declaring that "wholesome life is a national duty."1 Nazi propaganda films depict young men hiking mountains and performing military-style physical exercises. Young women are often shown performing graceful movements and assisting children with their gymnastics training.2 Nazi ideology valued strength and athleticism. Nazi propagandists often exploited German athletes’ achievements to demonstrate the supposed superiority of the so-called "Aryan" race.3
The Nazi regime used physical exercise as a way to increase the strength and overall health of the so-called "national community" ("Volksgemeinschaft"). However, Germans in different positions of power also used exercise as a form of humiliation, punishment, and torture. Camp guards used physical exercise to punish concentration camp prisoners and forced laborers.4 Because Nazi ideology claimed that "re-educating" people required physical work and exercise, concentration camp guards also used forced exercise and physical labor to "rehabilitate" gay men and other Germans imprisoned for supposedly "degenerate" behaviors.5 Throughout occupied Europe, German forces made Jewish men publicly exercise to the point of exhaustion in order to humiliate them and demonstrate their supposed inferiority.
In the featured photograph, a group of Soviet prisoners of war (POWs) is forced to perform exercises in an internment camp in occupied Poland.6 Waging a war of annihilation against the Soviet Union, German military and security forces systematically neglected, abused, and murdered Soviet POWs. Roughly 3.3 million Soviet soldiers died in German captivity during the war.7 Although the photographer is unknown and this image is undated, the rags tied around the men's heads and feet suggest that the weather is cold. What other details might be revealed through a close examination of the men’s clothing and facial expressions?