Mordka Mendel Grossman was born on 27 June 1913 in Gorzkowice,

Piotrków Governorate Piotrków Governorate (russian: Петроковская губерния; pl, Gubernia piotrkowska) was one of the administrative divisions ( ; ) in the Kingdom of Poland, established in 1867 by splitting some areas of the Radom and Warsaw Gover ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War ...

(today

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

). He died on 30 April 1945, during the

death marches A death march is a forced march of prisoners of war or other captives or deportees in which individuals are left to die along the way. It is distinguished in this way from simple prisoner transport via foot march. Article 19 of the Geneva Convent ...

. He was a photographer and worker in the Statistical Department of the Litzmannstadt Ghetto.

Youth and job in Łódź (1918-1939)

He was born in Gorzkowice to a

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

ish Hasidic family as a son of Szmul Dawid Grossman and Hanna. After the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

his family settled in

Łódź Łódź, also rendered in English as Lodz, is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located approximately south-west of Warsaw. The city's coat of arms is an example of ca ...

to Wschodnia street 58. In early youth he (as a child) began to draw portraits, as well as scenes from Jewish life. He started to take photographs, at first as an amateur, then as a professional. He himself colored pictures using aniline paints. In the 1930s he connected with the Jewish Theater in

, picturing scenes of all the performed plays, as well as actors and actresses. He also knew numerous writers, poets, musicians and painters. Just before war's onset, Habima Theatre visited

. Mendel was back stage, photographing the performances on his own initiative and directive. The results were the wonderfully inspired forerunner for all of his work in the ghettos and camps ~ Man in Motion ~ leading to the reverent archive of photos more aptly named as a collection ~ Motion Towards Death.

The Litzmannstadt Ghetto (1939-1944)

The

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

s put him and his family in the

Łódź Ghetto The Łódź Ghetto or Litzmannstadt Ghetto (after the Nazi German name for Łódź) was a Nazi ghetto established by the German authorities for Polish Jews and Roma following the Invasion of Poland. It was the second-largest ghetto in all of ...

in 1939, where he found work as a photographer, making identification cards and documenting the work that his fellow inmates did in the ghetto. The Ghetto Government thought these photographs would convince the Nazis to treat them better because they were industrious. Grossman also hid a camera in his coat during the day, taking photographs of the living conditions in the ghetto. He took these photographs at great risk to his life, not only because the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...

suspected him, but also because of his weak heart. Some of his photographs assisted people in identifying the graves of their loved ones. M. Grossman's negatives are now the prepared documentation of the Holocaust. Grossman distributed many of his photographs; those he was unable to distribute, he tried to hide. In August 1944, shortly before the final liquidation of the Litzmannstadt Ghetto, he hid ca. 10,000 negatives showing scenes from the Ghetto. In the ghetto, he lived together with his family at 55 Marynarskiej street.

Death

Deported to a labor camp in Koenigs Wusterhausen, he stayed there until 16 April 1945. Ill and exhausted, he was shot by Nazis during a forced death march, still holding on to his camera.

M. M. Grossman's pictures from the Litzmannstadt Ghetto

Grossman's sister found some of his hidden photographs and took them to Israel, but they were mostly lost in the

1948 Arab–Israeli War The 1948 (or First) Arab–Israeli War was the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. It formally began following the end of the British Mandate for Palestine at midnight on 14 May 1948; the Israeli Declaration of Independence had ...

. Other photos taken by Grossman were found by one of his friends, Nachman (Natek) Zonabend; these photographs are now located in the Museum of Holocaust and Resistance at the Ghetto Fighters House in Kibbutz Lohamei Hagetaot, Israel, as well as

Yad Vashem Yad Vashem ( he, יָד וַשֵׁם; literally, "a memorial and a name") is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; honoring Jews who fought against th ...

in Jerusalem.

Editions of Grossman's photos

* M. Grossman, ''With the Camera in the Ghetto'', Tel-Aviv 1970: Ghetto Fighters' House and Hakibutz Hameuchad Publishing House (published in English, French and Hebrew). Second Edition 1972 * H. Loewy, "Fotogeschichte" 1991, Heft 38. * ''My Secret Camera: Life in the Lodz Ghetto'', photographs by Mendel Grosman, text by Frank Dabba Smith, introduction by Howard Jacobson, , Great Britain 2000: Frances Lincoln Ltd.

References

Bibliography

* Arie ben-Menachem, ''Grossman Mordka Mendel'', n:''Encyclopedia of the Holocaust'', vol. 2, New York 1990 (phot.). * Andrzej Kempa, Marek Szukalak, ''Żydzi dawnej Łodzi. Słownik biograficzny'', vol. IV, Łódź 2004, pp. 62–63 (phot.; bibliography) * Andrzej Kempa, Marek Szukalak, ''The Biographical Dictionary of the Jews from Lodz'', Lodz 2006: Oficyna Bibliofilów, , p. 86 (Mordka Mendel Grossman's biographical note). * ''Unsere einziger Weg is Arbeit. Das Getto in Łódź 1940-1944'', Frankfurt a. Main 1990 (here M. Grossman's death-date: 30 April 1945).

External links

* Smith Frank Dabba (Author), Grossman Mendel (Photographer) (2008)
''My Secret Camera: Life in the Lodz Ghetto''
Frances Lincoln Children's Books. * http://www1.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%206319.pdf {{DEFAULTSORT:Grossman, Mendel 1913 births Photographers from Łódź Łódź Ghetto inmates 1945 deaths People from Staszów County Polish people executed by Nazi Germany Executed Polish people People executed by Nazi Germany by firearm Executed people from Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship Holocaust photographers Polish Jews who died in the Holocaust Polish civilians killed in World War II