Transcript [00:00] Have you ever wondered who tells the [00:02] story of the Holocaust? From what [00:03] perspective and angle have we learned [00:05] it? And who took most of the photos in [00:07] an arbitrary Google search for the word [00:09] Holocaust? Quick answer, those were the [00:11] perpetrators themselves in most cases. [00:14] We see Jewish victims how they were [00:15] perceived by the Nazis. But now, let's [00:18] meet a Jewish photographer who [00:19] photographed the Holocaust for several [00:21] years in real time as he himself [00:23] experienced it in the Lodz Ghetto, the [00:25] longest-lasting ghetto in occupied [00:27] Poland. This is Mendel Grossman. Mendel [00:29] Grossman was born in Poland to Shmuel [00:31] and Chana Grossman. Prior to the war, [00:33] Mendel was a prolific artist and [00:35] photographer. In 1940, he and his family [00:37] were incarcerated in the Lodz Ghetto. [00:39] Established on April 30th, 1940, the [00:42] Lodz Ghetto was by extension also the [00:43] second largest ghetto in German-occupied [00:45] Poland. Furthermore, it was the most [00:48] severely isolated from the rest of the [00:49] city, the other ghettos, and from the [00:51] outside reality at large. The Lodz [00:53] Ghetto was severed from the outside [00:55] world, enclosed by wooden fencing, and [00:57] reinforced with barbed wire. Interned in [00:59] overcrowded conditions without running [01:01] water or electricity, the population was [01:03] quickly decimated by rampant disease and [01:05] starvation. The basic necessities [01:07] securing food, finding warmth, and [01:09] maintaining a roof over your head became [01:11] a relentless daily struggle for families [01:14] fighting to survive. Mendel Grossman [01:15] worked in the Jewish Council's [01:16] Statistics Department taking photos for [01:19] identity cards. His job allowed him to [01:21] secretly photograph and document the [01:23] daily lives of ghetto inhabitants, the [01:25] starvation, deportation, Zionist youth [01:28] movements, executions, and the overall [01:30] worsening conditions of the ghetto. He [01:32] printed and distributed as many prints [01:34] as he could. Shortly before the ghetto [01:36] was liquidated in 1944, Mendel and his [01:39] friends hid approximately 10,000 [01:41] negatives and some prints in several [01:43] locations. [01:44] Mendel was then sent to the [01:45] Sachsenhausen work camp in Berlin. He [01:47] was murdered in 1945 on a death march. [01:50] After the war, friends and his sister [01:52] who survived were able to recover the [01:54] negatives and prints. What will history [01:56] remember of this tragedy? Who will tell [01:58] their story? And who will collect the [02:00] evidence of the German crimes? [02:02] Mendel Grossman fought Nazi propaganda [02:04] not with words but with a steady hand [02:07] and a silent lens. He reclaimed the [02:09] victims' right to show future [02:10] generations the true reality of the [02:12] ghetto, a place defined by hunger, [02:14] agony, and fear. [02:16] He photographed his own family looking [02:18] straight in the eyes of daily [02:19] deterioration that led to his father's [02:21] death in the ghetto. He captured his [02:23] mother's struggle for her family's life, [02:25] for her husband, and grandchild. He [02:27] captured his young nephew who, like so [02:29] many other children, had been deprived [02:31] of his own childhood and ultimately his [02:33] literal life by severe starvation. [02:36] But it was not only his family that he [02:37] captured through his lens. It was not [02:39] only their personal story he honored [02:41] with his photography. [02:42] The daily struggle for life was his [02:44] focus. A young man carrying a cart of [02:46] bread and other goods, searching the [02:48] ground looking for coal in urgent need [02:49] for heating and cooking, a child leaving [02:52] a food distribution site with a small [02:53] pot of soup. In January 1942, [02:56] deportations to the extermination camps [02:58] began. By the end of the year, almost [03:00] half of the Jews interned in Lodz Ghetto [03:02] had been murdered in Chelmno. Mendel [03:03] documented the unimaginable, including [03:06] the deportations that separated family [03:08] members from each other and condemned [03:10] the Jews to be murdered by the Nazis. [03:12] Who would see their anguish and despair? [03:14] Who would tell their story? [03:15] Who would allow history to remember the [03:18] victims' story of the Holocaust?
Who tells the story of the Holocaust?
In most of the photographs we see today, Jewish victims are shown through the lens of the Nazi perpetrators who dehumanized them. But thanks to a few courageous individuals, we also have access to the other side of the story.
Mendel Grossman was a prolific artist and photographer prior to the war. While in the Łódź ghetto he managed to secure a position that granted him a camera. Mendel Grossman fought Nazi propaganda not with words, but with a steady hand and a silent lens. He reclaimed the victim's right to show future generations the reality of the ghetto - a place defined by hunger, pain and fear.
Watch to uncover the tragic yet heroic story of Mendel Grossman and the Łódź ghetto.
