Houses of Life by Joachim Jacobs
How Jewish cemeteries across Europe reflect the ways that Jewish communities have lived and continue to live.
I came to this wonderful book as someone who could be called a graveyard addictFrom boyhood on I have wandered around country churchyards, city cemeteries and cathedral precincts philosophically absorbing everything from their monuments to their botany. But never did I walk where the Jews lay buried nor did it occur to me that in London and all over Europe they would do so in the same way as their patriarchs and ‘my’ Christ. Joachim Jacobs sets them out before us, these ‘houses of life’, which Christianity never succeeded in darkening, so that in his beautifully restrained account of them they will in future add to our vision of human existence. Marvellous photographs and paintings create their own illumination. Here an almost entirely neglected subject is brilliantly added to the traveller's tale, plus a scholarly footnote to European history. While everyone will learn something from this remarkable book, I felt that in some ways I had learned everything. Not the least of the Nazis' enormities was to deny six million men, women, boys and girls their houses of life. Their ashes were left to blow across the cold fields. There is a huge poetry in all this.
Hans Dietrich Beyer, born in Berlin in 1955, studied history and archaeology. He has worked as a professional photographer for the past 20 years. His regular commissioners include The State Museums of Berlin (Pergamon Museum), Museum 'Topography of Terror' Berlin (former SS-Headquarters), Jewish Community of Berlin, Touro University New York/Berlin and many other public institutions.
Joachim Jacobs is a landscape architect based in Berlin. He specializes in regeneration projects across Germany and has contributed to numerous publications. He recently designed an extension to the Jewish cemetery in Berlin Grunewald.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780711226487 |
| ISBN 10 | 0711226482 |
| Title | Houses of Life |
| Author | Joachim Jacobs |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Quarto Publishing PLC |
| Year published | 2008-10-09 |
| Number of pages | 208 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |