History is not all innovations and celebrations. In fact, a lot of it isn’t. There are countless instances of brutality, war, racism, genocide and other disturbing, shameful truths. And while tragedies do not exist only in the past, just take a look at the war Putin is cruelly waging in Ukraine, it is important for us to understand history to try to keep ourselves from repeating the darkest moments.
We’ve gathered a list of disturbing and painful historical photos down below, so we can all shine a light on some of the most unsettling parts of the world’s past. I will warn you, some of these photos are hard to see, but many of them capture important moments in history that we cannot allow ourselves to forget.
Although it is fascinating and informative, I understand that this list is a bit heavier than many of Bored Panda’s other publications. So after you have taken a moment to look back on these heartbreaking photos, we recommend checking out this article featuring some lighter moments from history that might bring a smile to your face and restore a bit of your faith in humanity.
#1 Anne Frank’s Father Otto, Revisiting The Attic Where They Hid From The Nazis. He Was The Only Surviving Family Member (1960)
Later the photographer Arnold Newman recalled taking of this photo: “The mood was depressing, and I immediately began photographing him. After a few moments, the Westertoren bells next door began to ring, and Frank turned to me and said: ‘Those were the bells that Anne wrote about.’ He suddenly broke down completely, weeping uncontrollably, and then so did I. We never met again. To this day when I lecture or tell this story to people, I find I choke up; I still can’t help myself.”
Image source: Arnold Newman
#2 Runaway Slave Peter, Exposing His Severely Whipped Back
Peter had received a severe whipping for undisclosed reasons in the fall of 1862. Peter escaped in March 1863 from the 3,000 acre plantation of John & Bridget Lyons, who held him and 40 other people in slavery at the time of the 1860 census.
Baton Rouge, La., 2 April, 1863: “Overseer Artayou Carrier whipped me. I was two months in bed sore from the whipping. My master come after I was whipped; he discharged the overseer. The very words of poor Peter, taken as he sat for his picture.”
Image source: JaeSolomon, Wikimedia Commons
#3 Dorothy Counts, The First Black Student To Attend An All-White School In The United States. Shown In This Photo Teased And Mocked By Her White Male Classmates
Image source: Wikimedia Commons
#4 The Dog Tags Of 58,307 US Soldiers Killed During The Vietnam War At The Harold Washington Library Center, Chicago
Image source: sasha_man123
#5 Human Zoos Existed. These Photos Taken In 1904, Where Us Government Imported 1,300 Indigenous Filipinos From Different Tribes To Display At The St. Louis Exposition In 1904
Filipino Zoo Girl was displayed at the Coney Island Zoo in 1904. She was a zoo attraction among the monkeys and lizards to show off the new US possessions in the Philippines. She was bound by ropes. Visitors threw her peanuts.
Image source: Library of Congress, Library of Congress
#6 War In Ukraine
Image source: dguttenfelder, dguttenfelder
#7 A Ku Klux Klan Child And A Black State Trooper Meet Each Other, At A Klan Rally Protest In Gainesville, GA (1992)
Innocence is mixed with hate. The toddler approached the trooper, who was holding his riot shield on the ground. Seeing his reflection, the boy reached for the shield.
Image source: Todd Robertson
#8 Two Armenian Counter-Militias Fighting The Armenian Genocide Perpetrated By The Turkish Ottomans. 1915
Image source: getronagan, tumblr.com
#9 Motel Manager James Brock Pours Muriatic Acid In The Monson Motor Lodge Swimming Pool, To Get Black Swimmers Out Of The Pool. June 18, 1964
Image source: curlysas, Civil Rights Movement Archive
#10 A Patient Undergoing Treatment For Mental Illness, Germany 1890
This 1890 photo depicts a woman forced into a crucifixion pose and facing a wall. The woman is a patient at a mental institution, undergoing treatment. Believe it or not, forced standing was considered a legitimate part of treatment for mental illness in 19th century Germany.
Image source: unknown
#11 Croatian Soldier In Front Of A Wall That Says “God If I Die Young Send Me To Heaven In Hell I Have Already Been”
#12 George McLaurin, First African-American Student Admitted To The University Of Oklahoma, Forced To Sit Apart From White Students. 1948
Image source: toshiro-mifune, Library of Congress
#13 A Few Of The Thousands Of Wedding Rings The Nazis Removed From Holocaust Victims To Salvage The Gold
The U.S. troops found rings, watches, precious stones, eyeglasses, and gold fillings, near Buchenwald concentration camp. 1945 May 5.
Image source: Wikimedia Commons
#14 A Rescue Dog Is Transported Out Of The Debris Of The World Trade Center. The Twin Towers Of The Center Were Destroyed In A September 11 Terrorist Attack
Image source: Preston Keres
#15 Martin Luther King Jr. With His Son, Pulling Up A Burnt Cross From The Front Lawn Of His Atlanta Home, April 1960
Image source: cnn.com
#16 Blanche Monnier Was A Woman From Poitiers, France, Who Was Secretly Kept Locked In A Small Room By Her Aristocratic Mother And Brother For 26 Years
She was eventually found by police, then middle-aged and in an emaciated and filthy condition; according to officials, Monnier had not seen any sunlight for her entire captivity.
Image source: Wikimedia Commons
#17 A Photo Of Zyta Sus, One Of Hundreds Of Thousands Of Children Who Were Kidnapped By The Nazi Regime
After being deemed “desirable”, she received a new identity and was given up for adoption. After the war, Zyta was taken to an orphanage. She never found her real family. 1942, Poland.
Image source: lightiggy
#18 A Japanese Family Returning Home (Seattle, Washington) From A Relocation Center Camp In Hunt, Idaho On May 10, 1945
Image source: HistoryInPics
#19 Magdalene Asylums, Also Known As Magdalene Laundries. Places Of “Reform” For Women That Didn’t Fit The Idea Of A Good Upstanding Citizen
The most well known ones were in Ireland. The women and girls were treated badly by asylum staff, most of whom were nuns.
Image source: Wikimedia Commons
#20 WWII Gas Masks For Babies
Throughout World War II, the threat of chemical warfare frightened citizens and soldiers across Europe. To prepare for a possible gas attack, civilians could have protected themselves with gas masks. But what about children and infants who were too small to wear a conventional mask? This eerie 1940 photograph shows nurses testing out new “gas masks” for babies.
Image source: Wikimedia Commons
#21 Father Luis Manuel Padilla Holds A Wounded Government Rifleman Shot Down In The Streets Of Puerto Cabello, Venezuela
During a bloody revolt against President Betancourt in June 1962.
Image source: Hector Rondon, Through A Historic Lens
#22 Ebensee Concentration Camp Prisoners. 1945
Image source: Wikimedia Commons
#23 With Her Brother On Her Back, A War-Weary Korean Girl Tiredly Trudges By A Stalled M-26 Tank At Haengju, Korea. 1951-09-06
Image source: National Archives
#24 Mugshots Of Two Men Imprisoned For Having Intercourse With Each Other. Stockholm, Sweden In 1897
Image source: eam2468
#25 Unknown Man During The Depression, Circa 1932
Image source: surrenderdorothy
#26 Coal Miners In Belgium Crammed Into A Coal Mine Elevator, Coming Up After A Day Of Work, Circa 1900
Image source: reddit.com
#27 The Earliest Known Picture Of The Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster, Taken Just Moments After The Meltdown And Explosion Of Unit 4 On April 26, 1986
This is believed to be the first photograph ever taken of the accident, and the only photo that survives from that morning. Igor Kostin was a photographer from Kiev who became world famous for his images of the the clean-up operation. Kostin claims the image is very noisy because radiation was destroying the film in his camera. Of all the shots he took on that flight, this is the only one that wasn’t ruined.
Image source: Igor Kostin
#28 “Servants, Be Obedient To Your Masters” – The Bible Written For Caribbean Slaves. It Was Edited To Remove Any References To Freedom And To Send A Very Specific Message To Slaves
Image source: museumofBible
#29 Hungarian Jews Being Selected By Nazis To Be Sent To The Gas Chamber At Auschwitz Concentration Camp, Auschwitz Album 1944
Image source: Wikimedia Commons
#30 Instant Of Test Nuclear Detonation Captured By Harold Edgerton’s Rapatronic Camera With Shutter Speed Of One Hundred Millionth Of A Second. Circa 1950s
Automatic camera by Harold Edgerton situated 7 miles from blast with 10 foot lens. Shutter speed equaled 1/100,000,000 of a second exposure.
Image source: synternia, Harold Edgerton
#31 Omagh Bombing
The red Vauxhall Cavalier contains the bomb. This photograph was taken shortly before the explosion; the camera was found afterward in the rubble. The man and child in the photo both survived.
Image source: Wesley Johnston
#32 “A Watch Stopped At 08:15 AM Found In Hiroshima”. August 1945
Image source: tiggerclaw, abcnews
#33 An Ambulance Driver From The Indian Army Clenches His Hands, Indicating The Intense Pain In His Leg Which Has Been Almost Completely Blown Off. Korean War (1951)
Image source: revolutionbubbletea
#34 All Women And Girls Using Radium Paint With No Protection Or Warnings In 1922
The radium girls were female factory workers who contracted radiation poisoning from painting watch dials with self-luminous paint. After being told that the paint was harmless, the women in each facility ingested deadly amounts of radium after being instructed to “Point” their brushes on their lips in order to give them a fine tip. Some also painted their fingernails, face, and teeth with the glowing substance.
Image source: Wikimedia Commons
#35 An Inmate At The Rab Concentration Camp
Image source: Wikimedia Commons, Wikimedia Commons
#36 Nurses In Their Bomb Trenches Between Hospital Wards. France 1918
Image source: pubwithnobeer, ajhydell.com
#37 Nazi Rally Attended By The 20,000 Americans. Madison Square Garden, 1939
Image source: grittzcz, Marshall Curry
#38 Red Rebels Are Being Executed In Varkaus During The Insurrection In Finland In 1918
Image source: Ivar Ekström
#39 The Irrepressible Australians At Anzac. An Australian Bringing A Wounded Comrade To The Hospital. Dardanelles Campaign, Circa 1915
Image source: National Archives Catalog
#40 Nagasaki, Japan, Under Atomic Bomb Attack
Image source: Library Of Congress
#41 Captured Chinese Soldiers Beg For Their Lives Thinking That They Are Going To Be Executed, Korea 1951
Image source: Worthy1
#42 Rear View Of Woman Standing At Berlin Wall, In The West Sector, With Hands Raised. After Waiting Three Hours To See Her East Berlin Friends And Relatives
Image source: Dan Budnik
#43 A Scene At A London Railway Station Showing Troops Arriving While Kiddies Who Are Being Evacuated From London Leave
Image source: Wikimedia Commons
#44 “Colored” Drinking Fountain From The Mid-20th Century With African-American Drinking
Image source: Russell Lee
#45 Flash Burns On Steps Of Sumitomo Bank Company, Hiroshima Branch
Image source: Wikimedia Commons
#46 The Gadget, The First Atomic Bomb, 1945
Image source: U.S. Department of Energy
#47 The Ku Klux Klan On Parade Down Pennsylvania Avenue, 1928
Image source: Wikimedia Commons
#48 Adolf Hitler And His Entourage Walk Near The Eiffel Tower In Paris On June 23, 1940, Following The Occupation Of France By The Nazis
Image source: Wikimedia Commons
#49 Ku Klux Klan Parade 9/13/26
Image source: National Photo Company Collection
#50 Children Of An Eastern Suburb Of London, Who Have Been Made Homeless By German Bombings, Sit Outside The Wreckage Of What Was Their Home, September 1940
Image source: Wikimedia Commons
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