Overview

"A single photograph--an exceptionally rare ""action shot"" documenting the horrific final moment of the murder of a family--drives a riveting process of discovery for a gifted Holocaust scholarIn 2009, the acclaimed author of Hitler's Furies was shown a photograph just brought to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The documentation of the Holocaust is vast, but there are virtually no images of a Jewish family at the actual moment of murder, in this case by German officials and Ukrainian collaborators. A Ukrainian shooter's rifle is inches from a woman's head, obscured in a cloud of smoke. She is bending forward, holding the hand of a barefooted little boy. And--only one of the shocking revelations of Wendy Lower's brilliant ten-year investigation of this image--the shins of another child, slipping from the woman's lap. Wendy Lower's forensic and archival detective work--in Ukraine, Germany, Slovakia, Israel, and the United States--recovers astonishing layers of detail concerning the open-air massacres in Ukraine. The identities of mother and children, of the killers--and, remarkably, of the Slovakian photographer who openly took the image, as a secret act of resistance--are dramatically uncovered. Finally, in the hands of this brilliant exceptional scholar, a single image unlocks a new understanding of the place of the family unit in the ideology of Nazi genocide."

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9781665060646

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Reviews

One photograph. That was what it took to start Wendy Lower on an incredible journey of discovery. Using her meticulous historical skills and her gift for shoe-leather investigation, she uncovers and tells a riveting story with implications for the the past and the present. THE RAVINE is a compelling read that is micro and macro history at its very best.-- Deborah Lipstadt, author of National Jewish Book Award winner History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier and Antisemitism: Here and Now Through her international investigation into a single photograph of the shooting of a Jewish family, Wendy Lower presents the Holocaust on the level of personal crime, uncovering the identities and stories of the victims, including the Jewish child, the killers, the neighbors, and the photographer. Seventy years after the crime, Lower, a historian dedicated to unveiling truths, solves what would otherwise have remained a 'cold case.' Her story is breathtaking.

[Lower's] search uncovers a wealth of information...and makes a persuasive case for how historical scholarship can 'help turn the wheels of justice.' This harrowing chronicle casts the Holocaust in a stark new light. -- Publishers Weekly Meticulously researched and thoughtfully written, her book is a testimonial to the power of countering ignorance with education and the importance of restoring the dignity of personhood to those erased by genocide. -- Kirkus Reviews

Author Information

"WENDY LOWER is the author of the National Book Award and National Jewish Book Award finalist Hitler's Furies, which has been translated into twenty-three languages. Recently the acting director of the Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Lower is the John K. Roth Professor of History and director of the Mgrublian Center for Human Rights at Claremont McKenna College. Suzanne Toren, award-winning narrator, has over thirty years of experience in narration. She was named a ""Golden Voice"" by AudioFile magazine in 2019. She has won the American Foundation for the Blind's Scourby Award for Narrator of the Year, AudioFile magazine named her the 2009 Best Voice in Nonfiction & Culture, and she is the recipient of multiple Earphones Awards. She performs on and off Broadway and in regional theaters and has appeared on Law & Order and in various soap operas."

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