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Children of a Vanished World (S. Mark Taper Foundation Imprint in Jewish Studies)

by Roman Vishniac

Children of a Vanished World (S. Mark Taper Foundation Imprint in Jewish Studies) Cover

ISBN13: 9780520221871
ISBN10: 0520221877
All Product Details

Only 1 left in stock at $34.95!

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Between 1935 and 1938 the celebrated photographer Roman Vishniac explored the cities and villages of Eastern Europe, capturing life in the Jewish shtetlekh of Poland, Romania, Russia, and Hungary, communities that even then seemed threatened--not by destruction and extermination, which no one foresaw, but by change. Using a hidden camera and under difficult circumstances, Vishniac was able to take over sixteen thousand photographs; most were left with his father in a village in France for the duration of the war. With the publication of Children of a Vanished World, seventy of those photographs are available, thirty-six for the first time. The book is devoted to a subject Vishniac especially loved, and one whose mystery and spontaneity he captured with particular poignancy: children.

Selected and edited by the photographer's daughter, Mara Vishniac Kohn, and translator and coeditor Miriam Hartman Flacks, these images show children playing, children studying, children in the midst of a world that was about to disappear. They capture the daily life of their subjects, at once ordinary and extraordinary. The photographs are accompanied by a selection of nursery rhymes, songs, poems, and chants for children's games in both Yiddish and English translation. Thanks to Vishniac's visual artistry and the editors' choice of traditional Yiddish verses, a part of this wonderful culture can be preserved for future generations.

Earlier books of Roman Vishniac's photographs include To Give Them Light: The Legacy of Roman Vishniac (1995), A Vanished World (1983), and Polish Jews (1947).

A major exhibition titled Children of a Vanished World: Photographs byRoman Vishniac is scheduled at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York. The show will open to the public on March 7 and run through June 4, 2000.

Synopsis:

This is a collection of photographs taken by Roman Vishniac when he explored the cities and villages of Eastern Europe between 1935 and 1938, taken with a hidden camera under difficult circumstances.

Synopsis:

"Vishniac came back from his trips to Eastern Europe in the 1930s with a collection of photographs that has become an important historical document, for it gives a last-minute look at the human beings he photographed just before the fury of Nazi brutality exterminated them. Vishniac took with him on this self-imposed assignment--besides this or that kind of camera and film--a rare depth of understanding and a native son's warmth and love for his people. The resulting photographs are among photography's finest documents of a time and place."--Edward Steichen<P>"Not to forget, not to allow oblivion to defeat memory: That is his obsession. Defying all dangers, surmounting all obstacles, he travels from province to province, from village to village, capturing slums and markets, a gesture here, a movement there, reflections of hope and despair, so that the victims will not wholly vanish into the abyss--so that they will live on, past torture and past massacre. And he has won the wager: They live still."--Elie Wiesel

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
KIER8, May 22, 2008 (view all comments by KIER8)
Here Dr Vishniac eloquently captures the beauty and innocence of Europeon Jewish children before many of them were to become victims of the Nazis.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780520221871
Editor:
Kohn, Mara Vishniac
Editor:
Flacks, Miriam Hartman
Editor:
Kohn, Mara Vishniac
Editor:
Flacks, Miriam Hartman
Author:
Vishniac, Roman
Author:
Kohn
Publisher:
University of California Press
Location:
Berkeley :
Subject:
Individual Photographer
Subject:
Jewish
Subject:
Jews
Subject:
Europe - Eastern
Subject:
Photo Essays
Subject:
Jewish children
Subject:
Jewish - General
Subject:
Photoessays & Documentaries
Subject:
Individual Photographers - General
Subject:
Jews -- Europe, Eastern.
Series:
S. Mark Taper Foundation Imprint in Jewish Studies
Publication Date:
October 1999
Binding:
Hardcover
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Yes
Pages:
156
Dimensions:
9.56x9.23x.78 in. 2.04 lbs.

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