Visualizing the Holocaust in Communist Czechoslovakia
This is a digital repository of imagery that appeared in Czech and Slovak novels, short stories, and first person reports about the Holocaust between the years 1945 and 1975. I came to this project when I realized that certain visual cues (barbed wire, striped inmate clothing) were not necessarily associated specifically with the Holocaust during the postwar period. The central question behind the collection is: how was the Holocaust visualized in communist Czechoslovakia? How was the imagery related or distinct from the narratives these books contained?
This collection is not exhaustive, though it includes the majority of imagery that appeared inside published Czech/Slovak literary works about the Holocaust during this period. The collection is more partial in its inclusion of book jackets, which were often difficult to trace.
The database is searchable by a variety of tags: the type of image, color, and type of publication.
Image type: Illustration, Photograph or Cover (Book Jacket) Color: labeled by dominant color Type of Publication: Fiction (Novels, Novellas, and Short Stories) or Personal Reportage (Documentary Style Reports, but written by a concentration camp survivor)