WITH CAMERA IN GHETTO

Rating:
Summary: A record of courage and brutality.
Review: During World War II, when the Germans rounded up all the groups destined for extermination, they stripped them of nearly all their power to be humans and to resist. While many grew apathetic, living only as long as they could and resigning themselves to their fate, others looked to the future in a positive way. Some of the optimists chose to record what was happening so that future generations would know of the atrocities. Inherent in those actions was a firm belief that the Germans would lose the war, for if they were to emerge victorious, then there would be no one to care about the fate of those exterminated.
Mendel Grossman was one of the optimists, and his weapon was a camera. Under the eyes of the Germans and with the constant threat of reprisal, he photographed the daily lives of the Jews concentrated in the Lodz ghetto. The seventy pictures in this book show a life of despair, hunger and a desire to survive as long as possible. Despite their grainy appearance, they are powerful images of what was a time of power gone horribly, brutally wrong.
The modern nation state is a powerful entity, capable of marshalling tremendous resources in order to achieve its' goals. However, we must never forget what can happen when those goals become perverted and we are indebted to Grossman and all others who had the courage to record those perversions.

Rating:
Summary: A record of courage and brutality.
Review: During World War II, when the Germans rounded up all the groups destined for extermination, they stripped them of nearly all their power to be humans and to resist. While many grew apathetic, living only as long as they could and resigning themselves to their fate, others looked to the future in a positive way. Some of the optimists chose to record what was happening so that future generations would know of the atrocities. Inherent in those actions was a firm belief that the Germans would lose the war, for if they were to emerge victorious, then there would be no one to care about the fate of those exterminated.
Mendel Grossman was one of the optimists, and his weapon was a camera. Under the eyes of the Germans and with the constant threat of reprisal, he photographed the daily lives of the Jews concentrated in the Lodz ghetto. The seventy pictures in this book show a life of despair, hunger and a desire to survive as long as possible. Despite their grainy appearance, they are powerful images of what was a time of power gone horribly, brutally wrong.
The modern nation state is a powerful entity, capable of marshalling tremendous resources in order to achieve its' goals. However, we must never forget what can happen when those goals become perverted and we are indebted to Grossman and all others who had the courage to record those perversions.