The Lodz Ghetto Photographs of Henryk Ross

The complexity of life in the Lodz Ghetto can be seen through thousands of photographs taken by Henryk Ross that show the everyday existence of the ghetto’s Jewish population. This lesson encourages students to examine daily life in the ghetto. Most residents had no running water or sanitation and faced starvation and overcrowding. These images force us to confront issues of social class, leadership, gender, poverty, forced labour, destruction of religious institutions, starvation and death. How do Henryk Ross’s photographs represent the complexity of life in the Lodz Ghetto?