London: "The Portraitist" to be screened March 19

Readers in London will have an opportunity to see a film - The Portraitist - about Polish photographer Wilhelm Brasse, who was ordered to take pictures of Auschwitz inmates during WWII.

Brasse, 92, is visiting London to see the film about his work and will participate in a Q&A session.

The film will be shown at the West London Synagogue on March 19, during the fifth Polish Film Festival. It is co-sponsored by Spiro Ark and the Polish Cultural Institute, and is being held at West London Synagogue.

Captured in southern Poland while he was trying to escape the Nazis and join the Polish army, Brasse was sent to Auschwitz in 1940 as a political prisoner and stayed there until the end of the war.

The SS ordered him to document the inmates. The day before the camp's evacuation, he risked his life to save most of the 100,000 pictures, among them children experimented on by Dr Josef Mengele.

For reservations and information, call Spiro Ark, 020-7723-9991.

To read more, click here