Description:
These are the testimonies of 20 remarkable people who survived the Holocaust and moved to Maine after the war.
Brief description: Jack Montgomery is a photographer, author and former attorney. He began photographing Maine's Holocaust survivors in 1996. His photographs are in the permanent collections of the Portland (Maine) Museum of Art, the Maine Jewish Museum, The Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine, as well as private individuals. His photographs cover a wide range including portraiture, architecture and landscape and often touch upon social issues including the consequences of totalitarianism, terrorism and anti-semitism.
Review Quotes:
"This is a powerful book. The photographs of the people, coupled with their testimonies, bring a past horror fresh to our present selves. The author lets each witness speak in their own particular voice. We need these truths to be repeated as an entire generation slips away into the past. I cannot recommend this book too highly. It should be required reading for all of us."
"Jack Montgomery's latest book, "From the Holocaust to Maine", is a quietly stunning collection of first person accounts of childhood survival within the Holocaust.
Each voice is different; each experience is harrowingly similar and yet totally unique. At the beginning of each person's story is a stunningly simple portrait of the survivor, photographed by the author. I returned time and again to look at the portrait of the person who was relating childhood experiences of unbearable cruelty and family deaths. Experiences that each one somehow survived.
The beauty of this book is its simplicity. You have a portrait and that person's story of childhood survival as a Jew during the Holocaust. Period. I believe this book belongs in our schools. As a former educator, this is exactly what young adults want to read. Not summaries, interpretations, historic trends, but rather first hand experiences. With a face to go with each story.
It is also what I, an elder woman who is afraid we will forget that most ugly period of world history, am very grateful to have discovered and read. I recommend it heartily."
"This collection of Holocaust survivors' stories is truly powerful. It is made more so by the revealing portraits of each individual, taken by author and photographer Jack Montgomery. His work captures the essence of their lives and survival in these amazing portraits. The effect of the photos along with the first-person accounts of their experiences capture your attention from one story to the next--despite the unbelievable horror of each tale. The overall impact of each simple, straightforward account adds to the importance of this book.
In my high school classroom, we read Elie Wiesel's Night, and students were always shocked and upset by the realities told in that account. I think this book would have an even greater impact because these individuals lived here among us in Maine--- one, a well known physician in the Augusta community. Such stories as these are vital for today's world---to remind each generation of our history and of what humanity is capable. Indeed, we must never forget."
"This remarkable book is startling in its celebration of human existence. All the varied photographed subjects have one thing is common: their survival. Whether it was with the help of righteous gentiles, or banding together with other survivors, or by sheer luck, they came out of hell alive. The combination of Jack Montgomery's incisive individual portraits and the revelatory details about these survivors' lives in Maine is ultimately a celebration of the human will to survive."