What is the deal with this Nazi's face in this photograph?

Factual Questions
1

I have here an old photograph of Jews being massacred by Nazis and their collaborators in Lithuania. In the background, stands one Nazi with a weird-looking head, and I can’t figure out what the deal is. Either he has a grossly malformed and enlarged head, or he is wearing some kind of strange headgear. I really can’t tell. The photo isn’t all that clear but it’s clear enough to make me think it’s weird.

Photo here.

On the right, I inset an enlarged view of the Nazi and his weird head.

What is the deal here?

2

I think it’s a gas mask, or possibly a set of flight goggles with his head down.

3

Hmm…why would that one guy be wearing a gas mask if nobody else around him was? It could be flight goggles (but why?) and if so, what is the deal with his mouth? Is it a handlebar mustache or something?

Weird, so weird.

4

The Wehrmacht in Lithuania recruited Gamorreans?

5

I think its just a normal head, viewed from a diagonal angle, with another guy’s head immediately behind (over his shoulder).

6

I think it’s a gas mask. Here’s a copy on which I’ve outlined what I think are the key features.

http://www.atomicshrimp.com/stuff/mask.jpg

lenses in green, mask edge in blue, filter canister in red.

What appears to be tufts of unruly hair (when you view it as a deformed face) is a bunch of background features, I think.

7

M-38 gas mask
M-44 gas mask

8

OK, there are two sets of holes on that face. The top ones (outlined in green) seem too high up to be the eye-pieces of a gasmask. If they are, then what are the holes beneath them? If the second set of holes is the eyes of a gasmask, then what are the holes above them?

9

I really don’t think its a gas mask, its just someone being view from a diagonal angle, with someone else visible over their left shoulder. I highlghted the two figures here

10

If it’s the M-44 that Johnny L.A. linked, the lower holes could in fact be the eye lenses and the upper ones could be the holes in between the straps around the head.

But it’s such a blobby, poor photo that almost anything could be going on. it could be, for example, that the figure was in the process of rapidly turning or moving his head when the exposure took place - the rest of the shot seems to suggest it wasn’t a slow shutter speed, but odd things can still happen when something is in motion. It could also be partly down to damage to the negative or print at some point, or some flaw that crept in during duplication (the photo looks like a copy of a copy of a copy…)

11

That also makes sense, now you’ve pointed it out.

12

I dunno, I’ve squinted at this every which way and I can’t pull any normal facial features out of the part outlined in red. Little help?

13

I only have iPhoto, which is a piss-poor tool for anything. I tried zooming in, and I sharpened the photo as well as I could but I can’t see any facial features either. However I do agree that part of the ‘face’ is the shoulder of the guy next to him.

14

Excellent observation, but isn’t the guy’s head still unusually large on a seemingly small body?

15

Could it be someone in a cap looking down, with something else behind him?

16

Some of what I highlighted in red as the guys head could be background.

17

Is it even a person? As much as it looks like there’s a guy in a military coat standing there, I’m not sure it’s not just a marking on the wall in the background.

18

Personally I think it looks sort of like a hardhat with a lamp fixture on someone looking down. The large round “mouth” is a lamp, the bottom two holes are clamps, or indentations (not sure). The upper two large holes? Not sure, possibly a decal that got lost in the photo process and distance.

A modern mining hardhat for reference:
http://www.mining-technology.com/contractor_images/mica/4-hard-hat-torch.jpg

19

I think the round thing that’s throwing us is a flaw in the photograph; the tufts of hair are shadows under blond hair; and the edge of the face is obscured by another man walking behind both men, and we can only see a couple of highlights of his face between the gaps of the front two.

Thusly.

20

This could be his head, although now that I look at it more I’m really not so sure because his head would be a lot smaller than the guy behind him. I’m posting it anyway because it may at least make you look at the image differently.

Also, look at the guy behind him. He’s obviously blond but has one black streak through his hair from a shadow. Our mystery man could have something like that happening, plus some photo artifacts and optical illusions, to make him look so strange.