A Vanished World by Roman Vishniac (1986, Paperback)

Between 1935 and 1938 the celebrated photographer Roman Vishniac explored the cities and villages of Eastern Europe, capturing life in the Jewish shtetlekh of Poland, Romania, Russia, and Hungary, communities that even then seemed threatened not by destruction and extermination, which no one foresaw, but by change. Using a hidden camera and under difficult circumstances, Vishniac was able to take over sixteen thousand photographs; most were left with his father in a village in France for the duration of the war. These images show Jews at work, play, studying, all in the midst of a world that was about to disappear. They capture the daily life of their subjects, at once ordinary and extraordinary. Thanks to Vishniac's visual artistry, a part of this wonderful culture can be preserved for future generations