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They offer a glimpse of the crimes of Syria’s notorious state security machine, which operates largely in secrecy, in contrast to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which broadcasts its atrocities in online propaganda videos.

Caesar was a crime scene photographer for the Syrian military police, but after the civil war started he was tasked with taking pictures of deceased detainees as part of a record-keeping effort that appears designed to hide the regime’s victims in plain sight.

Instead of dumping bodies in mass graves that could later be used as evidence of war crimes, the regime photographed every dead captive, assigned them numbers and had doctors concoct fake causes of death so they could one day be accounted for.

Although their families knew only that they were missing, Caesar saw through his camera lens the signs of torture on their bodies — the broken teeth, gouged-out eyes, burns and marks left by lashings with car battery jumper cables.

‘I have never in my life seen pictures of bodies that were subjected to such criminality, except when I saw the pictures of the Nazi regime’

“I have never in my life seen pictures of bodies that were subjected to such criminality, except when I saw the pictures of the Nazi regime,” he testified to the U.S. Congress. “My work ethic, my morals, my religion did not allow me to be quiet.”

Instead of fleeing right away, Caesar began a risky spy operation. When he was alone at the office, he would copy the images onto portable USB sticks, which he hid in the heel of his shoe or tucked into his belt until he could pass them to a friend.