Confiscated from Jews deported to Auschwitz in 1943, the images reflect the memories that men and women sent to Auschwitz could not leave behind. A unique testament to the vitality of the victims’ lives, these photos are the only known surviving collection from a whole transport to a concentration camp.

At Bates, Weiss will discuss her discovery of the photographs and the journey culminating in their publication in her 2001 book “The Last Album: Eyes from the Ashes of Auschwitz-Birkenau.”

The event is open to the public and will be followed by a book signing. For more information, please contact 207-755-5980.

In contrast to the Holocaust images embedded in our minds, these extraordinary photos provide an intimate and compelling record of who the Nazis’ victims were, whom they loved and what mattered most to them.

Weiss discovered the collection of more than 2,000 photos by accident during a group tour of Auschwitz in 1986. She has traveled the globe researching the stories behind the photos. Her journey has taken more than 20 years, including many visits to Poland to secure permissions and copy the photos, and far-ranging travels to reunite photos with remaining family members. Whenever a story was matched to a face, an identity was restored.

“Survivors have always told me how their loved one died, but I would ask a new question, ‘How did they live?’ ” says Weiss. “And even when no survivor remains to tell the story, it is the photos themselves, and the eyes, that reveal their own powerful testimony.”

The photographs are the basis for touring exhibitions and a 1988 documentary film, “Eyes from the Ashes.” The images have been displayed around the world including an exhibit at the Wiesenthal Center/Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles.

Weiss is a principal interviewer, researcher and analyst for The University of Pennsylvania’s “Transcending Trauma: Psychological Mechanisms of Survival” project, which has interviewed Holocaust survivors in the most detailed interview protocol to date.

She serves on the editorial board of the “Studies in the Shoah” series of history books, and has served as a trained interviewer for the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Project, founded by director Steven Spielberg.

She is the founder and director of the Eyes from the Ashes Foundation, an educational organization. Learn more.

Katalin Vecsey, a member of the Bates College theater faculty, reads from the writings of Holocaust survivor Judith Magyar Isaacson ’65 in a free public event.

Selections from Isaacson’s book Seed of Sarah: Memoirs of a Survivor, as well as a forthcoming sequel, soon to be published by Hentrich & Hentrich, of Berlin, will be presented by Vecsey.

• Callahan Hall at the Lewiston Public Library
• Thursday, Feb. 12, at 7 p.m.

The seminar will be highlighted by various evening speeches given by survivors of the Holocaust. Lou Shulman recounts his experience of Life in the Warsaw Ghetto, at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 8. Rochelle and Jerry Slivka, both survivors of the Holocaust, will speak at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 9. The speeches will be held in Room G52, located on the ground floor of Pettengill Hall.

The weeklong seminar includes lectures by special guest scholars and speakers, films and reviews of books and videos followed by discussion. In addition, the seminar will focus on methods of educating elementary school students about the Holocaust as well as examine the changing nature of Holocaust studies entering the 21st century.

Sponsored by the Office of the Chaplain at Bates, the Spiritual Journeys lecture series features speakers from a variety of traditions who tell the stories of their spiritual awakening and development. Speakers are invited to explore how they experience a sense of the holy in their everyday lives, how their perspectives and disciplines have shaped that sacred experience, and how they understand religion as a resource or an obstacle to the life of the soul. Speakers may also address what the political and social consequences of their spirituality.