When all is lost, the one thing that people turn to is photographs – to relive and cherish their memories of loved ones. When my precious daughter Miya, died in 2007, it completely devastated me and my family. I turned to holocaust survivors to help cope with the fear of forgetting my daughter, the intricate details of what makes a person unique: the way she hugged and smelled and sounded and loved.

This was the beginning of the journey into my first book Living Witnesses: Faces of the Holocaust, a collection of portraits and stories of 90 Detroit area Holocaust survivors. I soon realized the experience was not only therapeutic to me and my daughter, Sabrina, who is a writer and wrote their stories… but, also therapeutic to the survivors themselves. My assistant, Linda Schlesinger, and I visited each survivor’s house. Quickly, we realized that they wanted their history told for the world, for their families to hear. Often, they had never shared their wartime suffering and experiences - not even with their families.

Soon, we expanded the project. We met with survivors throughout the US, Europe, Israel, and Canada. In all, 400 holocaust survivors are featured altogether. As a result of our continuing commitment we created Living Witnesses: Triumph Over Tragedy. The project is a testimony to the survivors’ lives today and the triumph over their past.

Purchase a copy at any of the following locations:

Naturally Photography in Sylvan Lake, Michigan.
The Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills, Michigan.
The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Skokie, Illinois.