Taken by Mendel Grossman, this propaganda photograph shows idealised conditions in the Łódź Ghetto.
Text Description
This image is part of a collection of 43 photographs taken in the Łódź Ghetto by Mendel Grossman and others. They were donated to the Library in 1976 by G. Aronson on behalf of his wife Helen Aronson (née Chmura), a former inmate of the ghetto and a friend of Mendel Grossman. Most of the photographs in this collection bear the word "Hala" in pencil on their reverse - a Polish nickname for Halina or Helena. During the existence of the Łódź Ghetto Helen Aronson (then known as by Halina Chmura) worked as a cleaner for Hans Biebow, a German official of the ghetto administation.
Along with propaganda images like the one pictured here, Mendel Grossman secretly recorded ordinary life in the Ghetto. His photographs can therefore be seen both as commemoration and a form of resistance. Grosman died on a Death March in April 1945. Mendel Grossman was without doubt the best known Jewish photographer in the Łódź Ghetto. Other examples of his ghetto photography can be found in the Museum of Holocaust and Resistance at the Ghetto Fighters House in Israel, as well as at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.
Note: In order to preserve our original prints and allow for greater access to our photo collection, we are in the process of digitising our photographs. As such, only a small selection of our images are currently searchable online. If you wish to search the full collection please contact our Photo Archivist via email.
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