Henryk Ross
Henryk Ross | |
|---|---|
Witness Henryk Ross questioned by Gideon Hausner during Eichmann-Trial (1961) | |
| Born | 1 May 1910 |
| Died | 1991 (aged 80–81) |
| Known for | Staff photographer for Judenrat, Łódź Ghetto |
| Spouse | Stefania Schoenberg (m. 1941) |
Henryk Ross (1 May 1910 – 1991) was a Polish Jewish photographer known for his official and clandestine photographs of the Łódź Ghetto during the Holocaust. Employed by the Department of Statistics for the Jewish Council, he used his position to document scenes of daily life, hunger, deportations, and violence in the ghetto. Before the ghetto’s liquidation, he buried thousands of negatives, about half of which survived after liberation.
About
Ross was born in 1910. Ross was a sports photographer for a Warsaw newspaper, prior to World War II.[1]
From 1940, Ross worked with his colleague Mendel Grossman producing identity and propaganda photographs for the Department of Statistics of the Judenrat in the Łódź Ghetto.[1] While, maintaining their official position as staff photographers, Ross and Grossman also made unauthorized photographs of Nazi atrocities, including public hangings.[2][3]
Part of his official duties was taking identity photographs. He constructed a three level stage in his studio that let him photograph up to twelve people with a single negative. While the authorities supplied him with only enough film for assigned work, this trick allowed him extra film he could use for unauthorized photography.[4]
His unofficial images covered scenes from daily life, communal celebrations, children digging for scraps of food and large groups of Jews being led to deportation and being loaded into box cars.[5]
In 1944, the Nazis started the liquidation of the Lodz ghetto and the deportation of the remaining Jews from it to Chelmno and Auschwitz. In the fall of 1944, Ross buried his photos and negatives in a box, hoping they might survive as a historical record. About 800 Jews, including Ross, were left in the ghetto for cleanup work; according to Yad Vashem, eight mass graves had already been prepared for them. Ross survived until the Red Army entered Łódź in January 1945. After liberation, he retrieved the buried box of photographs. Although much of the material had been damaged or destroyed by water, about half of his 6,000 images survived.[1][4]
Ross in 1950 emigrated to Israel and testified during the 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann.[6] He died in 1991.[7]
Legacy
In 2021, the Museum of Fine Arts of Boston received a donation of 48 silver gelatin prints by Ross, making it one of the few museums in the United States to hold his work.[8]
Ross’s photographs were included in the 2006 Barbican exhibition In the Face of History: European Photographers in the 20th Century. In The Guardian, Blake Morrison wrote that the posthumous availability of Ross’s whole negatives collection complicated earlier understandings of the archive by showing both scenes of suffering and images of ordinary or comparatively privileged life in the ghetto.[9] Chris Boot, the publisher of Łódź Ghetto Album, described Ross’s photographs as significant both as historical documentation and as a body of photographic work. He argued that the archive was “arguably the most extensive single collection by any single photographer on any aspect of the Holocaust” and noted Ross’s “photographic vision”.[10]
References
- ^ a b c "The Jewish Photographer Henryk Ross". Yadvashem.org. Retrieved 2021-03-06.
- ^ Marta Sinior (24 August 2005). "Fotografie z getta Henryka Rossa". Internet Archive. FotoPolis.pl. Archived from the original on April 4, 2015. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
- ^ Isaiah Trunk 2008, Łódź Ghetto: A History, pp. 53-56.
- ^ a b Memory Unearthed: The Lodz Ghetto Photographs of Henryk Ross, Art Gallery of Ontario, 2015
- ^ "Agence VU Henryk Ross". Archived from the original on 2021-05-13. Retrieved 2015-05-26.
- ^ Bilsky, Leora. "Film as Witness to the Holocaust" (PDF). library.ucsd.edu."Ross’s testimony in the Eichmann trial consisted of two parts. First, he was brought to testify as an ordinary eyewitness to the events in the Ghetto. Second, the prosecution submitted his photos as forensic exhibits to the court, and Ross was brought to testify to their authenticity. This attempt by the prosecution to adapt Ross's testimony and photos to the conventional procedures of an eyewitness seems to obscure the unique role of the victim as witness photographer" (...) "In the Eichmann trial Ross testified about it. I was there from six in the morning, until seven in the evening, until the Germans went away, and the transport departed. I watched as the transport left. I heard the shouts. I saw the beatings. I saw how they were shooting at them, how they were murdering them, those who refused".
- ^ Fotografie Henryka Rossa
- ^ Packard, Cassie (2021-03-04). "Photos by Jewish Artist Who Documented Polish Ghetto During Holocaust Gifted to MFA Boston". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 2021-03-06.
- ^ Morrison, Blake (2006-10-20). "Different views". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2026-06-16.
- ^ "An Insider's View of the Lodz Ghetto: the Photos of Henryk Ross". Radio Prague International. 2005-01-14. Retrieved 2026-06-16.
Sources
- Isaiah Trunk (2008) [2006]. Łódź Ghetto: A History (Google Books, preview). Bloomington, Ind: Indiana University Press. ISBN 9780253219930. Retrieved 24 March 2015.
- Ross, Henryk (2004). Chris Boot (ed.). Lodz Ghetto Album. London. ISBN 0-9542813-7-3.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Links
- The Lodz Ghetto Photographs of Henryk Ross Archived 2023-07-10 at the Wayback Machine