KWIATY OSWIECIMIA - Auschwitz Flowers - From the first books of drawings documenting the horrors of Auschwitz. By ZINOWIJ TOLKACZEW. Published by Drukarnie Narodowa, Krakow, 1946.
Album of drawings and text by Zinowij Tołkaczew [1903-1977], a Soviet-Jewish graphic artist and painter who studied art in Kiev and at the Moscow University of the Arts. The book was published shortly after the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Tołkaczew was a Red Army volunteer and participated in the liberation of the camp. He was deeply influenced by the harsh scenes he saw during liberation and the events of the Holocaust, and he began to paint the sights he saw. The drawings, 32 in number, deal with the suffering and horror endured by the children in the camp, including difficult scenes of parents and children, and are particularly harsh and powerful. Tołkaczew's paintings were exhibited in several cities in Poland immediately after the war, and the powerful reaction of the public who saw them led the publisher to decide that they should be displayed in a book.
[20] p. + 32 drawing pages, [4] pages. 27 cm. Stains on some pages of the book. Wear and stains on the cover. Spine missing. Condition moderate.
