Last Traces: The Lost Art of Auschwitz - Hardcover

Czarnecki, Joseph

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0689120222 ISBN 13: 9780689120220

Publisher: Macmillan Pub Co, 1989

Synopsis

A poignant legacy of the death camp victims features the paintings, drawings, poems, slogans, and calendars found in out-of-the-way locations at Auschwitz

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

Though the art itself is primitive and often difficult to decipher, the stories behind the sketches, inscriptions and doodles documented by Polish photojournalist Czarnecki on the walls of cells, latrines, washrooms and barracks at Auschwitz will move readers with the weight of their human suffering and courage. A few pictures need no commentary: a pigeon wistfully carries an envelope in its beak; an arrow pierces a timeless cupid's heart, carrying two names; a line from Dante's Inferno is elaborately scratched on a pitted surface. Sad stories wait in the wings, as for example, in the inscribed names of Edward Galinski and Mala Zimetbaum, the only trace remaining of their concentration camp romance. As the text notes, the pair barely missed making their escape from Auschwitz, attempted suicide unsuccessfully and were finally put to death by the SS. Like the other art of Auschwitz prisoners, theirs is ad hoc, compressed and urgent, but no less moving for that.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal:

This book presents the hidden art found at Auschwitz, the Nazi death camp in Poland where two million people were killed between 1940 and 1945. Black-and-white plates reproduce drawings, calendars, poems, and messages found on walls, doors, caves, and latrines. The text describes the nightmare life and death of the various inmate-artists. Author/photographer Czarnecki is a Polish photojournalist well acquainted with his subject; the book's format is well designed and the photographs are excellent. Still, there are other, more general books on Holocaust art. This one would be for very specialized collections.
- Hara Seltzer, NYPL
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Macmillan Pub Co
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0689120222
• ISBN 13: 9780689120220
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 175