Published by Steidl. Text by Henri Lustiger Thaler.
In Through the Lens of Faith, New York–based photographer Caryl Englander (born 1954) photographed subjects between the ages of 80 and 102, while writer Henri Lustiger Thaler (author of Witnessing Unbound, 2017), who has interviewed hundreds of Holocaust survivors, asked Englander's subjects to share their stories of Auschwitz, centering on the question of faith: how did it express itself in an environment that was its complete antithesis? Lustiger Thaler's careful arrangement of the survivors' voices presents their responses and narrates the brutality of everyday life in the concentration camp.
Through the Lens of Faith is also realized as an exhibition designed by Daniel Libeskind, the renowned architect of memorial spaces including Berlin's Jewish Museum. Libeskind's moving design juxtaposes Englander's photos against the visceral entry to Auschwitz, creating confrontation between symbols of imprisonment and freedom.
