Ein Ghetto im Osten - Wilna [A Ghetto in the East]

Zurich and Leipzig: Orell Fussli, 1931. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. FIRST EDITION, illustrated with 65 images of the Jewish ghetto in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius. With preface by poet Zalman Chneour in Hebrew and German. "In the same year that his Paris was published, Moï Ver - under his real name of Moshé Vorobeichic- produced Ein Ghetto im Osten (A Ghetto in the East). The book, with both Hebrew and German text, featured his photographic record of the Jewish ghetto in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, documenting a way of life that would soon disappear under terrible circumstances. Even more so than Paris, Ein Ghetto im Osten was ostensibly a documentary book, but as he had done in his view of the French city, Moï Ver could not resist pushing the envelope of the documentary form. Once again, he used a variety of New Vision strategies, the most obvious being to take many images from upstairs windows looking on to the narrow streets of Vilnius's old Jewish quarter. This creates odd angles and a dynamic mise en scène for his pictures of people going about their everyday business on the street...But Moï Ver didn't stop there. He also introduced cinematic cutting and montaging techniques to heighten the interest... A poignancy has been added [to Ein Ghetto im Osten] in hindsight: it was made at the beginning of a desperately traumatic time for European Jewry" (Parr/Badger, The Photobook).

Zurich and Leipzig: Orell Fussli, 1931. Small octavo, publisher's photo-illustrated boards. Very minor rubbing, some foxing to the early and end leaves, some light soiling, generally an excellent copy.