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Through Soviet
Jewish Eyes
Price (Cloth): $39.95
Price (Paper): $32.50
Subtitle: Photography,
War, and the Holocaust
Author:
David Shneer
Subject: Jewish
Studies, European
History
Cloth ISBN: 978-0-8135-4884-5
Paper ISBN: 978-0-8135-5393-1
Pages:
304 pages
Publication Date: December 2010
Series: Jewish
Cultures of the World
Praise:
“It’s fascinating and meticulously documented history.”
—Jerusalem Report, 2/14/11
"David Shneer's utterly original and
fascinating new book open a whole new way of seeing 'through Soviet
Jewish eyes'. It is a treasure-trove of Soviet-Jewish World II-era
photographs, many of them published here for the first time, and a
brilliant guide to their surrounding historical content."
—James E. Young,
Distinguished University Professor and Chair of Judaic & Near
Eastern Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the author
of The Texture of Memory and At
Memory's Edge
"An excellent history of Jewish photographers in the Soviet Union from the Bolshevik revolution to the post-Stalin decades following WWII. Shneer not only traces the essential role Jewish photographers played in the creation of photojournalism in the Soviet Union, but also chronicles the manner in which these elite artists photographed the war against Nazi Germany (the book includes many rare photos). Highly recommended."
—Choice
"This book provides visual evidence,
which promises to revise significantly popular and historical
understanding of the Holocaust as it occurred in places, unlike
Auschwitz, where there were no survivors."
—Joan Neuberger,
University of Texas at Austin
Description:
Most view the relationship of Jews to the Soviet Union
through the lens of repression and silence. Focusing on an elite group
of two dozen Soviet-Jewish photographers, including Arkady Shaykhet,
Alexander Grinberg, Mark Markov-Grinberg, Evgenii Khaldei, Dmitrii
Baltermants, and Max Alpert, Through
Soviet Jewish Eyes presents a different picture. These artists
participated in a social project they believed in and with which they
were emotionally and intellectually invested—they were charged by the
Stalinist state to tell the visual story of the unprecedented horror we
now call the Holocaust.
These wartime photographers were the first liberators to bear witness
with cameras to Nazi atrocities, three years before Americans arrived
at Buchenwald and Dachau. In this passionate work, David Shneer tells
their stories and highlights their work through their very own
images—he has amassed never-before-published photographs from families,
collectors, and private archives.
Through
Soviet Jewish Eyes helps us understand why so many Jews flocked
to Soviet photography; what their lives and work looked like during the
rise of Stalinism, during and then after the war; and why Jews were the
ones charged with documenting the Soviet experiment and then its near
destruction at the hands of the Nazis.
About the Author:
DAVID SHNEER is
associate professor of history and director of Jewish studies at the
University of Colorado at Boulder. His books include Yiddish and the Creation of Soviet Jewish
Culture, a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award.
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Price (Cloth): $39.95
Price (Paper): $32.50
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