Product Description

Mendel Grossman, one of the many Jews imprisoned in the Lodz Ghetto during World War II, was driven by a passion to bear witness to the human suffering that was going on around him. He secretly photographed people and events in the ghetto, leaving a historical record. In this photographic information book, the reader is taken on a journey with Grossman and his camera. The text emphasizes hope for the future, rather than the suffering of the past.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #770587 in Books
• Published on: 2003-07-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 40 pages

Review
"These photographs catch life in the Ghetto as though by surprise... They strengthen the heart because they show the victimised finding reason to laugh and joke... In the end that is what they record most vividly - the subjects' inextinguishable appetite for life". Howard Jacobson

From the Publisher
Recent review coverage for My Secret Camera:
"Mendel Grossman took these photographs of the people of the Lodz Ghetto in secret. They are heart-rending, beautiful, beyond words; they show parents attempting to comfort their children through the wire of the prison camp where Grossman died. Save this book for when your children are old enough to understand the tragedy, as well as the beauty of facts. It will not only feed their imagination, but their hearts." The Independent on Sunday

"These are photographs that were taken from under a raincoat, and 55 years later they retain a peculiar intimacy: they are oblique memorials, images of restrained and hushed beauty. It is their context, rather than their content, that make them terrifying, tender, painful beyond belief. We look at the faces, the caught expressions, and know that shortly after these people were extinguished... All of these images are almost unbearable. Yet this is a book meant for young people. The simple, first-person text by Frank Dabba Smith asks children to imagine what it was like. Asks all of us to imagine again. It would seem to be the job of all parents and all teachers to make sure that children grow up knowing about the Holocaust. This book, suffused with tenderness, is a good place to start." The Observer

"This remarkable photo-essay about the Lodz Ghetto in Poland poignantly introduces Holocaust horrors… The text is simple and lets each picture speak for itself. This technique works well and makes the subject accessible to children… As these are personal, secret photographs and not the propaganda pictures so often repeated in history books, their significance is great and they are historically fascinating. The incredible story of how the photos have survived is recounted in an appended note. A truly powerful book." The School Library Journal

"Through the eye of the secret camera of Mendel Grossman, the reader sees bravery, determination and even humour in the face of great adversity". The Methodist Recorder

About the Author
MENDEL GROSSMAN (1913-1945) was born into a Hasidic family but chose to follow his artistic inclinations. Although Mendel Grossman died just before the end of the war, a small portion of his photographs survived. They may be viewed today at the Museum of Holocaust and Resistance at the Ghetto Fighter's House in Kibbutz Lohamei Haghetaot, Israel and at Yad Vashem, Jerusalem. FRANK DABBA SMITH was born in California. He studied Linguistic Anthropology at Berkeley (BA Hons) and qualified as a teacher. He was ordained as a rabbi at Leo Baeck College, London, in 1994. Frank also works as a freelance photographer: he has self-published Miriam and Lewis, a photographic album of his work documenting the development of his children and The Economist has published over 150 of his images. His rabbinical thesis, Photography and the Holocaust, analyses the use of photography as a communications and propaganda device by all parties involved in the Holocaust.