Visual Elements

Ranging from large, elaborate tomes to small, hand-typed booklets, Yizkor books also exhibit a wide range of visual elements such as maps, photographs, sketches, and evocative design features. The maps, usually hand-drawn from memory, tend to represent what townspeople remembered about their homes and what they felt had been important there – in other words, a Jewish geography of the shtetl. Other elements include rare photographs and reproductions of documents of historical significance. The frontispieces are often dramatic, hand-drawn images incorporating scenes from the Holocaust and symbols of traditional Jewish mourning rituals.