The Last Album: Eyes from the Ashes of Auschwitz-Birkenau

Rating:
Summary: Amazing piece of history..............
Review: This book is an amazing piece of history. The fact that so many photos brought into Auschwitz have survived is phenomenol as all personal effects were automotically burned by the Nazis murderers. When viewing the photos in this book, which were brought in by those of the Sosnowiec-Bendzin transport, it would also be advisable to read Tadeusz Borokowski's book "This way to the gas ladies & gentleman' as this book covers the particular Sosnowiec-Bendzin transport and outlines in gruesome and terrifying detail what became of many of those on this transport. The photographs bring back to life many who are gone and also tells you those who survived, which is a relief to realise that some of those from the Polish ghettos made it. These photos bring back a lost world that will never return and along with Roman Vishniac's collection of photographs are a piece of history that is very much worth investing in.

Rating:
Summary: A Sad, Beautiful and Powerful book
Review: What comes across most powerfully in The Last Album is that in the vast majority of these images there is nothing outwardly "Jewish" about most of the subjects. Nothing to help us understand why the Nazi's marked them. They are middle class, working class, and wealthy, and they look just like their neighbors (and most probably behaved like them, too). It was just this faith, no matter how they practiced it, or didn't. Just an accident of birth for some. I guess the point is that under other circumstances it could have been the Catholics, or Muslims (see Yugoslavia), or Albanians or Kurds. Hopefully this wonderful addition to the literature will serve as yet another reminder how easy it is for us to fall into these groundless hatreds and somehow help hold back our urges to engage in such destructive behavior.