When Germany invaded Wilhelm Brasse's native Poland in 1939, he was asked to swear allegiance to Hitler and join the Wehrmacht. He refused. He was deported to Auschwitz concentration camp as political prisoner number 3444. A trained portrait photographer, he was ordered by the SS to record the inner workings of the camp. He took identification photographs of prisoners as they entered, went on to capture the criminal medical experiments of Josef Mengele, and also recorded executions. Between 1940 and 1945, Brasse took around 50,000 photographs of the horror around him. It was a job that saved his life.

Eventually, Brasse's conscience wouldn't allow him to hide behind his camera any longer. He risked everything by joining the camp's Resistance movement, faking documents for prisoners and trying to smuggle images to the outside world to reveal what was happening. Then, as liberation approached, Brasse refused SS orders to destroy his photographs. ‘Because the world must know’ he said.

Recreated from extensive research and interviews with Brasse’s children, this true story of horror, hope and courage sits at the very centre of Holocaust history.

Product Information:
• ISBN: 9781804992814
• Author: Maurizio Onnis & Luca Crippa
• Publisher: Puffin
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 289
• Dimensions: 20.7 x 12.8cm