The Auschwitz Photographer

The Forgotten Story of the WWII Prisoner Who Documented Thousands of Lost Souls

By: Luca Crippa, Maurizio Onnis

Narrated by: Charles Constant

The Nazis asked him to swear allegiance to Hitler, betraying his country, his friends, and everything he believed in.

He refused.

Poland, 1939. Professional photographer Wilhelm Brasse is deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau and finds himself in a deadly race to survive, assigned to work as the camp's intake photographer and take "identity pictures" of prisoners as they arrive by the trainload. Brasse soon discovers his photography skills are in demand from Nazi guards as well, who ask him to take personal portraits for them to send to their families and girlfriends. Behind the camera, Brasse is safe from the terrible fate that so many of his fellow prisoners meet. But over the course of five years, the horrifying scenes his lens capture, including inhumane medical "experiments" led by Josef Mengele, change Brasse forever.

Based on the true story of Wilhelm Brasse, The Auschwitz Photographer is a stark black-and-white reminder of the horrors of the Holocaust. This gripping work of World War II narrative nonfiction takes listeners behind the barbed wire fences of the world's most feared concentration camp, bringing Brasse's story to life as he clicks the shutter button thousands of times before ultimately joining the Resistance, defying the Nazis, and defiantly setting down his camera for good.

©2013 Edizioni Piemme S.p.a.; copyright 2018 by Mondadori Libri S.p.a.; English translation copyright by Jennifer Higgins (P)2022 Tantor

A good story but…

The details are surely not accurate. The authors didn’t actually interview the subject of the book and all of the dialogue and specific details in the book seem speculative at best. It still tells an impactful story but it’s not necessarily one I’d recommend as I’ve read and enjoyed other books on the subject more.

More of an account than a story

Very good book. Not so much of a story but more so telling of his history. I was disappointed in the ending....although how can you say you don't like the end of a book when it's a true story. I was his truth.

heartbreaking,as it should be.

painful,from beginning to end and I'm not disappointed. no true story of this time has a happy ending and this story shows that mercilessly. Love does not conquer all.

Loved it

This was a great read/listen. I even spent time looking up the story for more historical details.

A Poinant Insight

Each graphic episode transports the listener into the buildings, walkways, and crematories of Auschwitz where introductions are made to prisoners and their captors and tormentors. Nazi officers, Dr Mengele's patients, and early camp inmates pass before the photographer's lens, leaving an indelible history by capturing each personal image and making it a part of the whole fabric of a human tragedy.