Auschwitz: A History in Photographs [Hardcover]

Teresa Swiebocka (Author, Editor), Jonathan Webber (Author, Editor), Connie Wilsack (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1993

More than 280 documentary photographs and reproductions of artworks by former prisoners record the history of the Auschwitz concentration camp, from its initial construction, through the horrors of the Holocaust, to its modern-day appearance.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This graphic record of Auschwitz, the main center for the Nazi's systematic murder of European Jewry, is an overwhelming experience. Published in association with the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum (where Swiebocka is senior curator), it reproduces more than 280 pictures taken by Nazis, by liberating Allied forces and, clandestinely, by prisoners; there are also prisoners' drawings and paintings. Notes smuggled out of Auschwitz informing the world of the Nazi genocide and testimonies by prisoners who escaped are also included. The Nazis murdered more than one million people in the Auschwitz camp system, which was founded in 1940 in occupied Poland; 90% were Jews, but Poles, Gypsies, Soviet prisoners of war, homosexuals and people of other ethnic groups and nationalities were also exterminated. Recording the ravages of slave labor, starvation and torture, as well as the prisoners' struggle for life and dignity and the range of organized and spontaneous resistance to the Nazis, this is an essential Holocaust document.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Previously published in Poland, where it was compiled in conjunction with the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, this book provides photographic documentation of the Holocaust and the suffering at Auschwitz. The book explores the horror at Auschwitz and the camp's meaning in today's world. Photographs depict prisoners and their suffering, the physical layout of the camp, evidence of torture found after liberation, artwork detailing prison life, and Auschwitz as it appears today. The photographs, which come from a variety of sources, include official Nazi pictures, smuggled photographs by prisoners, aerial views, and liberation pictures. Chosen to show all aspects of the camp's history, the photographs provide visual evidence of what happened to the Jewish people. Essays and captions provide insightful information and history. Recommended for all libraries.
- Mary Salony, West Virginia Northern Community Coll. Lib., Wheeling
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 295 pages
• Publisher: Indiana Univ Pr (October 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0253355818
• ISBN-13: 978-0253355812
• Product Dimensions: 11.5 x 9.3 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #149,028 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #65 in Books > History > Europe > Poland

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Pictorial Account, August 23, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Auschwitz: A History in Photographs (Hardcover)

Having just visited Auschwitz last week, I ordered this book as a remembrance of my experience there. The pictures and the stories behind the way they were obtained are extremely compelling and accurately show the accounts of the people who perished there.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great picture novel that helped me learn more., March 26, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Auschwitz: A History in Photographs (Hardcover)

I'm still yet a child, and still yet to grow, but I will never grow out of the rememberence of the Holocaust. It was a time in our worlds history that we should never forget. This book helps reminds us of it and gives us a better view and perspective of what happen and to never take advantage of it.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Testament To The Memory Of The Innocents Who Were Murdered, August 25, 2002

By 

M. D Roberts (Gwent, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Auschwitz: A History in Photographs (Hardcover)

Having visited the exact areas from which these photographs are taken, I am so grateful to have this book as a memorial of my visit and experiences there.

To actually see the places where innocent Jews were executed and where countless thousands of children were gassed and their remains cremated as part of the Nazi industrial death machine, is one of the most harrowing experiences of my life.

If you are unable to visit the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum personally, then this book has to be the next best thing. The photographs show that little has changed there from those evil years under the Nazi regime of Hitler, Himmler and co..

The buildings full of human hair, much from children still bearing their innocent plaits and curls. Buildings full of spectacles and suitcases still bearing the names of those murdered, along with so many other personal possessions. The buildings where they existed before the ultimate short trip to the gas chambers. The firing squads and the 'wall of death' between blocks 10 and 11. They are all documented so well in this book.

This book is highly, highly recommended. How long these sites will actually remain is beginning to be questioned. Even now, with anti-Semitism again raising it's ugly head in Europe, plans are being talked about to build discotheques and shopping centres in the viscinity of the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum. Little if any thought is being paid to the desecration of the memory and sanctity of the site where so many innocents perished. How long will it be before the site is itself talked of in terms of it's removal in pursuit of 'progress'.

The memories must be kept alive so that history does not repeat itself. This book is a testament to the evil perpetrated there.