Photographer Buries Photos so Nazis Wouldn’t Find Them, Retrieves Them After War Ends

The holocaust during WW2 is inarguably one of the worst atrocities committed in the 20th century. The event cost the lives of millions of people and split up families all across the continent. Still, another side effect is that an entire period of history was lost - millions of Jewish intellectuals, writers and artists had their work lost forever.

During the peak of the holocaust in 1944, Henryk Ross was living in the ghettos of Lodz, Poland after German forces invaded the city in 1939. Ross was a street photographer who had been forcibly employed by the Nazi Department of Statistics to take identification and propaganda photos for their regime. During that time, however, he risked his own safety to document daily life in the Lodz ghetto so that it could be preserved for future generations—here are 12 of his incredible images.

1. Ross excavating his hidden photos, 1945

2. Portrait of a couple, 1940 - 1944

3. A man Man rescues a Torah from the rubble of a nearby synagogue, 1940

4. A boy searches for food in the dirt, 1940 - 1944

5. A man walks through snow in the rubble of a Synagogue, 1940

6. A woman hugs her child, 1940 - 1942

7. Old food pails and dishes of residents sent to death camps, 1944

8. Sign for a Jewish residential area, 1940 - 1944

9. Rallying point at Lodz Ghetto Prison, 1940 - 1942

10. Ghetto wedding, 1940 - 1944

11. A boy in a doorway swing, 1940 - 1944<

12. Portrait of a little girl, 1940 - 1944

13. Children being transported to a death camp, 1942