The Portraitist

The Portraitist is a 2005 Polish television documentary film about the life and work of Wilhelm Brasse, the famous photographer of Auschwitz, made for TVP1, Poland, which first aired in its Proud to Present series on January 1, 2006. It also premiered at the Polish Film Festival, at the West London Synagogue, in London, on March 19, 2007.

While all of Brasses photographs are not extant, 40,000 that did survive are kept in archives, with some on display, at the AuschwitzBirkenau State Museum, and at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Authority, Israels official memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, and some of the AuschwitzBirkinau State Museum archival photographs and related iconography are presented visually in the film, with narration through interviews with Brasse.Portrecista The Portraitist examines the life and work of Wilhelm Brasse, who had been trained as a portrait photographer at his aunts studio prior to World War II and passionately loved taking photographs. After his capture and imprisonment by the Nazis at Auschwitz concentration camp in 1940, at the age of 23, he was forced to take identity pictures of between approximately 40,000 to 50,000 other inmates between 1940 and 1945. With courage and skill, documenting cruelty which goes beyond all words ... for future generations, after his liberation at the end of World War II, Brasse could not continue with his profession and would never take another photograph. ........

Source: Wikipedia