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July 29, 2007
Images Before the Shoah
The pictures, in black and white, are softly focused, but the images are sharp and striking.
These are our ancestors in Poland before the Holocaust. They are ordinary workers, scholars and doe-eyed schoolchildren; there are graves of holy Rabbis, the miraculous grave of a Polish nobleman who converted to Judaism, there's a yeshiva for young girls — I marvel at their fashionable haircuts. The photos of Polish synagogues are a revelation, each is a gem, a vernacular masterpiece — all destroyed by the Germans. These well educated Teutonic barbarians were not content to destroy Jewish lives, they were determined to stamp out every trace of authentic Jewish life. The Germans understood that Torah was and always will be the life-blood of the Jewish people.
The Jews of Poland were, for the most part, poor in material possessions, but their spiritual life was rich beyond imagination.
You gaze at these pictures and with each click of the cursor you want to reach through time and space and cry out a warning: “Jews, flee before it is too late; it is coming, a whirlwind of such terrible immensity that you and your entire world will be reduced to ashes.”
But of course, there is no rescue for this Jewish world — lovely faces, ordinary scenes, sublime architecture — frozen in grainy black and white.
It will all be wiped away: six million times.
Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Mordechai Schiller
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at July 29, 2007 10:51 AM
Comments
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The photos in this exhibit are wonderful and heartbreaking all at once. Mementos of a world gone, forever.
Posted by: Tamara at July 29, 2007 12:51 PM
Very beautiful. But I believe I recognize a number of the photos as Roman Vishniak's. For example, the cheder boys, and the three yeshiva students walking down the street. Others too.
Posted by: kishke at July 29, 2007 01:12 PM
Dear Robert,
Thank you for sharing those. I have passed them along to several dear friends.
Alan
Posted by: alan at July 29, 2007 01:30 PM
Tamara:
"Wonderful and heartbreaking." Well said.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.seraphicpress.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at July 29, 2007 03:34 PM
Kishke:
Yes, definitely Vishniac photos. This book is a collection of different works by various photographers, some known, many unknown; it's a photographic history of a lost Jewish world and truly poignant. I have seen the photos of the shuls in architectural monographs about celebrated European wooden synagogues.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at July 29, 2007 03:41 PM
Alan:
You're very welcome. Always good to hear from you.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at July 29, 2007 03:43 PM
Exquistely heartbreaking.
Posted by: Dana at July 29, 2007 05:23 PM
There is a DVD, similar in theme, by a similar name: http://www.amazon.com/Image-Before-My-Eyes-History/dp/B000CRR3J2.
May I recommend another book, the most comprehensive volume that I've ever seen written about the Holocaust — "The Holocaust Chronicle." We own a copy of the huge volume and I've spent hours on Shabbos reading through its pages and learning new details. The book also offers a website: http://www.holocaustchronicle.org/
Posted by: Pearl at July 29, 2007 07:21 PM
I'm not into photography, but I have a couple of Vishniac books and his images are unbelievable. Full of life and haunting at the same time.
P.S. I noticed in your last email that you did not capitalize.
Posted by: Ari Kinsberg at July 29, 2007 10:10 PM
Ari:
Ariel ZT'L and I used to leaf through the Vishniac books together on Shabbos. Ariel sighed, dreamed of time travel, learning in the great yeshivos of Poland and Lithuania.
Capitals: The difference between R'shus Ha'Yachid, and R'shus Ha'Rabim.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at July 30, 2007 10:53 AM
Pearl:
Thanks for the wonderful links.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at July 30, 2007 10:55 AM
Dana:
Heartbreaking, indeed.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at July 30, 2007 10:58 AM
"Capitals: The difference between R'shus Ha'Yachid, and R'shus Ha'Rabim."
I hate to say this on such a sombre post, but LOL.
(I saved you the time this time.)
Posted by: Ari Kinsberg at July 30, 2007 08:08 PM