John C. Swanson

The aim of this project is to write a triple biography of Lili Jacob (the woman who found the Auschwitz Album in 1945), her home village of Bilky (formerly in Hungary, now part of modern-day Ukraine), and the album itself (which contains the only photographs of Jews arriving at Auschwitz-Birkenau). This is a kind of microhistory, an investigation of life on a local level through the voices of specific individuals, places, and things. John C. Swanson’s documents, images, conversations, and experiences allow him to complicate as well as complement more established narratives of the Holocaust, Eastern and Central Europe, and the modern world.