Memory Unearthed

Emotionally resonant photographs of everyday life in the Jewish Lódz Ghetto taken during WWII

From 1941 to 1944, the Polish Jewish photographer Henryk Ross (1910–91) was a member of an official team documenting the implementation of Nazi policies in the Lódz Ghetto. Covertly, he captured on film scores of both quotidian and intimate moments of Jewish life. In 1944, he buried thousands of negatives in an attempt to save this secret record. After the war, Ross returned to Poland to retrieve them. Although some were destroyed by nature and time, many negatives survived.

 

This compelling volume, originally published in 2015 and now available in paperback, presents a selection of Ross’s images along with original prints and other archival material including curfew notices and newspapers. The photographs offer a startling and moving representation of one of humanity’s greatest tragedies. Striking for both their historical content and artistic quality, his photographs have a raw intimacy and emotional power that remain undiminished.

Distributed for the Art Gallery of Ontario