Book of the Month

Our featured book of the month for July is:

"THESE PHOTOGRAPHS WERE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE SEEN. The Nazi order to destroy every personal photograph brought to every concentration camp was clear: Not only were the victims to be destroyed, but their memories were to be obliterated as well. Despite this, the cherished pre-war photographs of one transport to Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1943 escaped destruction.

In October of 1986, more than four decades later, Ann Weiss entered a locked room at Auschwitz and came across an archive of over 2,400 photographs brought to the camp by Jewish deportees from across Europe. The photos, both candid snapshots and studied portraits, had been confiscated but, instead of being destroyed, they were hidden at great risk, and saved. In many cases, these pictures are the only remnants left of entire families.

The Last Album is a collection of over 400 of these remarkable photographs. It traces the story of how they arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau and how the author came to see them through what was essentially a fortuitous accident. In the years that followed, Weiss identified as many people and places in the photos as possible, traveling around the world to track down remaining family members and friends, and listening to stories of the inmates' lives before being removed to the camp. Many of these accounts are transcribed here.

When people think of the Holocaust, often the first thing that comes to mind is the sadly familiar, horrific images of emancipated bodies and starving survivors. Although the photographs in this book were, indeed, found at Auschwitz-Birkenau, they are bursting with life. We see babies; parents with their children; groups of teenagers; people at work, at school, at home, on vacation--normal people leading normal lives. The photographs and reminiscences gathered here offer a rare and intensely personal view of who these individuals were and, most importantly, how they chose to remember themselves.

The photographs from The Last Album have been and will be on exhibit, traveling throughout Europe, Canada, the United States, and the Middle East."