Still Lives reveals how Jews used photographs to document their experiences in the face of National Socialism. Based on analysis of more than fifteen thousand images, it explores the efforts of Jews to make sense of the changing landscapes of Germany, justify their decisions under Nazism, and communicate their hopes, anxieties, and self-perceptions.

Illustrated with nearly 100 images, Photography and Jewish History presents five twentieth-century case studies that move beyond a focus on Jewish photographers or the photographic representation of Jews or Jewish visibility to plumb the deeper and more significant registers of twentieth-century Jewish political history.