Customer Reviews

My Secret Camera: Life in the Lodz Ghetto

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Tha little boy on the cover of the book is my brother, Moishele Minski. Standing behind him is my mother, Nacha Minska. They perished in the Nazi gas chambers. I was there in Lodz ghetto. That book is a painfilled reminder of what hate, prejudice and indifference lead to. Ruth Minsky Sender Author of THE CAGE. TO LIFE. THE HOLOCAUST LADY. Survivor of LODZ GHETTO.

My Secret Camera By: Frank Dubba Smith gives the reader a great insight on how Jews were dehumanized by {...] army. The reader gets a true feel for how tragic it is when someone is treated with little or no respect at all by all of the graphic and detailed pictures in this book. One of these pictures is one that has two young boys hauling an enormous bowl packed full of filthy clothes worn for months or weeks with no wash.

The pictures in this book were amazingly detailed considering the circumstances the photographer was placed in. I thought that the epilogue gave a great story about the way the pictures actually came to be published. My secret Camera may possibly be the best book I've ever read on this specific subject, Nazi terrorism. This book was terrific!

I really enjoyed reading My Secret Camera but I would only recommend it to children or even adults that have little or no feel for how badly some people were/are treated in a few places around the world. This book would really "wakes up the reader" to how terrible people can be even in today's societies. This book had phenomenal wording, terrific and detailed pictures which gives the whole book a great overall summary. I give this book 5 out of 5 stars for all of the reasons above. READ IT TODAY! Please! Thank You, AJ.

"My Secret Camera: Life in the Lodz Ghetto" combines the photographs of Mendel Grossman with a simple text by Frank Dabba Smith. Grossman was one of the many individuals who suffered under Nazi rule before and during World War II. Using his camera, he carefully documented the lives of the Jews who were confined by the Nazis to the Lodz ghetto.

Grossman's photographs in this book capture many haunting images: the despairing faces of the trapped people, two children harnessed like animals to a cart, people waiting on a bread line. But the fact that Grossman's stark visual testament survived the Holocaust is ultimately inspiring. This is an important book for teachers and parents to share with young readers.

Grainy black and white photographs taken secretly by Mendel Grossman in the Lodz ghetto are the entire strength of this book. The words are almost superfluous as these haunting images make clear the pain, the suffering, the humanity and tremendous urge for life in this incredible prison.

My Secret Camera : Life in the Lodz Ghetto tells a shares photographs and limited text depicting the event in Lodz Ghetto. This would be a good classroom book for younger children because it tells the tale of being in the Ghetto rather then the concentration camp. Some students think of the persecution of Jews during WWII as only happening in the camps.

If your students are reading Daniel's Story by Carol Matas in class, you will want to have a copy of My Secret Camera since Daniel is sent to the Lodz Ghetto. The two books fit together nicely.

My Secret Camera : Life in the Lodz Ghetto shows life in the Lodz Ghetto through the eyes of young man who didn't survive the Holocaust. The pictures in the book show a small sliver of how life was for the Jews held captive in the Lodz Ghetto.

Teachers whose students read the book Daniel's Story by Carol Matas will want to have at least a classroom copy of this book. The Lodz Ghetto is the main character Daniel was sent. Daniel was a photographer much like Mendel Grossman who took the photographs in this book.

I bought this book because the boy on the cover bears a striking and uncanny resemblance to every member of my family. Took it home and cried for hours. Unforgettable.

The Lodz Ghetto was one of the Jewish ghettos set up by the Nazis when they invaded and occupied Poland during WW II. These Jewish ghettos were basically prisons, as Jewish residents were not allowed out onto the Aryan side; the ghettos usually had tall brick walls constructed around them so as to prevent escapes; there was tight security; and only Jews assigned to work as slave labor for the Nazis were allowed out, under supervision. Thousands of Jews were crammed into a small area, and many were forced to live in close, cramped quarters. Food was difficult to come by, and given the unhygienic conditions, disease and starvation were rampant.

Mendel Grossman was a young man in 1940, when he and his family were confined in the Lodz Ghetto. Horrified and sickened by what he saw around him, Grossman was determined to document the atrocities and deplorable living conditions as a testimony to what the Nazis were doing, so that in the future, people would see for themselves what life really was like in the Lodz Ghetto. Grossman's method of documentation was photographs, and he took many, hiding his prized negatives in the walls of the apartment he shared with his family and others. Though Grossman did not survive the war, his photographs were recovered, and today stand testimony to the horrors wrought by the Nazis.

As mentioned in the Introduction, these pictures are precious not only because they are historical documents (Grossman managed to take them at great personal risk to himself - he hid the camera under his raincoat), but also because many are not `posed', and the subjects are unaware that there is a secret camera recording their miserable existence. The resulting photographs are at once `natural' (though nothing during those times could be termed as natural) and heartrending.

Each photo is accompanied by text written by Rabbi Frank Dabba Smith which adds details not evident from the photograph. I learned for example that the reason Grossman was able to even possess a camera was because he took pictures of Jewish workers for their ID cards to be given to the Nazis.

I only wish there were more photos included in this book. I read at the end, that many of the photographs taken by Grossman had been destroyed during the 1948 Israeli War of Independence. Nevertheless, this is valuable book for those interested in the Holocaust, and recommended for school and public libraries.

This book is a moving introduction for all ages to the ghettos of World War 2.
The photographs were taken by Mendel Grossman, a prisoner in the Lodz Ghetto. He found a way to take secret photographs of fellow prisoners going through their daily life and the growing signs of the occupation, slavery and horrors going on under the eyes of those that followed. The most moving picture was the friends laughing in the sunlight. Among the other photos, it is a striking contrast that surprises the reader with the sheer strength of human optimism.
The words of Frank Dabba Smith only tell the partial story, the rest is told through the eyes of thos in the photographs. There are accompanying facts that will slowly introduce those unfamiliar with the well known story of the Jews of the Holocaust. They create more questions than answers, but they draw the reader into their simplistic ideas and suggestions of the disturbing activities to come.
The combination of the words and photographs complete the story of those that may not be able to tell it for themselves and allow for much discussion on the subject.

Mendel Grossman did humanity a great service in risking his life to bring the world visual proof of the horrific tragedies within the Lodz ghetto during the holocaust. Unfortunately the text of this book is written in such an over-simplified style that the publisher's targeted age range; 3rd thorough 5th graders are easily bored by it.

Aside from a few weak descriptions of these powerful images, I felt besieged by Frank Smith's one-sided listing of war facts. Smith's prose melodramatically recites the war's background from a narrow perspective that seems designed to inflame young readers about the suffering of only one race. With so many other races alongside the Jewish people targeted for Nazi genocide, I felt that a more sober and complete narrative about this tragic time in history would have provide the book with the necessary facts to place it among the best of it's genre.

My Secret Camera deprives its readers of a powerful chance to merge the photography of this Jewish ghetto and a first-hand historical account of this terrible time in history. After reading and owning so many incredible and moving Jewish and non-Jewish authored books about the holocaust, I can only recommend you purchase this book for it's pictures - it's not worth reading.