Impressionant reportatge fotogràfic dels diferents ghettos de Polònia i Ucraïna. Moltes fotos fetes per soldats alemanys. ( )

The Ghettos of Nazi-Occupied Poland – Deeply disturbing

Ian Baxter’s books are never easy to read or look at the pictures, as he does not tackle easy subjects. This time he is using rare photographs of the Nazi Ghettos that were in operation in Poland. The ghettos appeared across Poland during the German Occupation in the towns and cities as a way of isolating the Jewish Community.

Baxter has used contemporary photographs, which make for harrowing views of people and place. What makes things worse, is that today we know that these ghettos were nothing more than holding stations for Jews before being moved to extermination camps. The pictures show the reality of life in those ghettos for the residents and the conditions which deteriorated by the day.

Hans Frank headed up the ghettoization programme in Poland in his position of Governor General of the Occupied Polish territories. Jewish communities were moved enmass to special closed off zones. The first deportations to the ghettos began in October 1939, and the Jewish communities were forcibly moved.

The pictures in this book show the start of the programme and the movement of the Jews pushing the belongings they were allowed to keep on carts. What really is disturbing is a picture of a destitute beggar in the Warsaw ghetto. The photographer Heinrich Joest notes that he is not sure if the beggar is laughing at him or just smiling, afraid of what he may do to him. The photographer noted that the beggar smelt of rotting flesh.

There are also a number of pictures showing dead Jewish women in the streets. The photographs were taken by a German army sergeant, Heinrich Joest who had been stationed in Warsaw. He shot 140 images in the Warsaw ghetto which would not be published until he met Guenther Schwarberg, who was a reporter for the German magazine Stern in 1982.

One of the most disturbing chapters is Chapter 3, Liquidation of the Ghettos. The streets strewn with clothing and bundles of possessions that the Jews were not allowed to take with them. With in the background, the Jews being rounded up for deportation. Or the picture of a German policeman preparing to complete a mass execution with the dead naked bodies spread out in a pit.

This book is deeply disturbing, but that is the nature of the content. ( )