Auschwitz: Not Long Ago. Not Far Away.

In this haunting work, historians Van Pelt, Ferreiro, and Greenbaum present a powerful companion to the eponymous international exhibition. The exhibition—and the book—focuses on “the traces of genocide, the remnants of a murdered people, and the material evidence of crimes against humanity.” Jews, Poles, POWs, Roma, and homosexuals were all targets of the Nazis and collaborators, and the authors tell their stories through photographs, letters, drawings, anti-Semitic propaganda posters, and artifacts (the socks of an eight-year-old girl that muffled the sound of her walking while she hid in Poland). All the images converge to depict the horrific and revolting way in which Auschwitz was designed not just to murder, but to destroy and dehumanize the spirit of its victims: there’s a photo of the courtyard of Block 11, where many prisoners were executed naked by firing squad, and another of a young Jewish woman wailing as she was rounded up in Berlin. The authors include prisoner stories that illustrate the many acts of bravery and rebellion, including that of Witold Pilecki, a second lieutenant in the Polish cavalry, who led a resistance movement while imprisoned. This informative and disturbing photographic history serves as an immensely moving reminder of the atrocities of Auschwitz. [em](May) [/em]