![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.artoronto.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/19846-660.jpg\" "\\"19846-660\\"")
<\/a>Henryck Ross, Henryck Ross photographing for identification\u00a0cards, Jewish Administration, Department of Statistics, Lodz ghetto<\/em>, 1940,\u00a0Art Gallery of Ontario, Gift from Archive of Modern Conflict, 2007. \u00a9 2014 Art Gallery of Ontario<\/p>\nRoss was relocated to the ghetto and, because of his expertise, he was quickly enlisted by the Statistics Department of the Judenr\u04d3te<\/em> \u2013 a council of Jewish elders established to preserve order yet was nothing more than a puppet government for the Nazis.\u00a0Ross\u2019 job was to firstly photograph the Jewish inhabitants for identification papers, and secondly document administrations, factories, and citizens as propaganda for the regime.\u00a0His work was heavily restricted to only certain subject matter and anything that deviated from his overseers’ orders was grounds for execution.\u00a0Therefore, many of his photographs in the exhibition consist of happy citizens in soup kitchens or diligent laborers in textile and leather workshops.\u00a0Despite the threat of death however, he was keen on telling the true story of the Lodz ghetto, not the false portrayal that satisfied quotas or consciences. Taking every measure to conserve on the department-provided film, he then wandered the confined neighbourhood to capture the sights of his everyday life: streets lined with the cold and homeless, destroyed synagogues (most notably the one on Wolborska Street whose Torah had survived the pillaging), fecal workers who very often suffered from severe illness, and denizens digging holes scrounging for food.\u00a0Ross constantly risked his life and had doubts that he would even survive through the ordeal, so as a contingency he collected his prints \u2013 both from his own work and from his work for the Judenr\u04d3te<\/em> \u2013 and buried them at 12 Jagielnoska Street in the hopes that they would be rediscovered by their liberators. After the liberation Ross recognized that only half of his 6,000 negatives survived.<\/p>\n The range of work that Ross provides is truly telling of those times.\u00a0On the one hand, it shows the Nazis\u2019 efforts in addressing their racial prejudices as well as the idea they strived for, which took the form of an industrial powerhouse that maximized efficiency and minimized cost.\u00a0Their propaganda was a means of demonstrating to the German people, the government, and themselves that theirs was a noble and progressive goal.\u00a0On the other hand, you have the gruesome reality that their efforts manifested that completely juxtaposes their ideal solution.\u00a0Having both perspectives simultaneously is truly an immersive experience as Ross seems to tell vivid narrative of his, and many others\u2019, experiences. What was most moving, I find, was the assortment of individualised portraits and candid moments of several of the Jewish inhabitants taken shortly after their relocation.\u00a0There were scenes of smiling and playing children, women enjoying their gardens, and men in suits in professional poses.\u00a0It seemed like a brief instance of calm separate from the painful life around them \u2013 an enduring moment of dignity and joy, even though for many it would sadly be one of their last.<\/p>\n<\/a>Henryk Ross, Lodz ghetto: Man who saved the Torah from the rubble of the synagogue on Wolborska street (destroyed by Germans 1939),<\/em> 1940, Art Gallery of Ontario, Gift from Archive of Modern Conflict, 2007. \u00a9 2014 Art Gallery of Ontario<\/p>\n<\/a>Henryk Ross, Lodz ghetto: The ruins of the synagogue on Wolborska street, demolished by the Germans,<\/em> 1940, Art Gallery of Ontario, Gift from Archive of Modern Conflict, 2007. \u00a9 2014 Art Gallery of Ontario<\/p>\n<\/a>Henryck Ross, Lodz ghetto resident – young child<\/em>, 1941 – 42,\u00a0\u00a0Art Gallery of Ontario, Gift from Archive of Modern Conflict, 2007. \u00a9 2014 Art Gallery of Ontario<\/p>\n