One of these Jews, Henryk Ross, has provided us with a unique perspective of what life was really like within the confines of a ghetto.
In these pictures taken in the Lodz Ghetto, we see the holocaust from some unfamiliar perspectives; this Jewish photographer, employed by the Nazi statistics department to document the production of goods for the Nazis, created the broadest portrait of life during one of mankind’s darkest hours.
Although there is an ultimate sadness in these images, for the simple reason that we have the knowledge that almost all of those portrayed lost their lives in the holocaust; the emotions felt when looking at the scenes portrayed are complex and many; there is the unfamiliar depiction of moments of joy, a wedding or bar mitzvah, yet I feel a sense of unease sharing these moments with those depicted, for it is difficult to comprehend the idea of happiness or joy in a ghetto that acted as a staging post to the death camps; there are depictions which show complicity with the Nazis and hints at a surviving order of social status within the ghetto; all things which momentarily confuse my desire for a black and white sense of what is right and wrong, but these images merely show us the complex nature of being human and of the ability to seek out moments of joy in situations where it is almost incomprehensible. I have heard tale of a passenger in a lifeboat watching the titanic sinking who commented on the beauty of the moon lit scene. These images of Ross’ remind me that we are complex creatures, capable of complex behaviour, emotions and responses.
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On Aug 6th 1944 the 60.000 remaining Jews at Lodz were sent to Auschwitz as the ghetto was liquidated. Henryk is one a handful that where to survive, he returned to Lodz to reclaim the negatives he had wisely buried; affording us this unique portrait.
