In Images Before My Eyes: A Photographic History of Jewish Life in Poland Before the Holocaust, Lucjan Dobroszycki and Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett have both contributed to explaining the history of Polish Jews through a compilation of photos taken by photographers in Poland between the war years. These photographs show aspects of Jewish life in politics, work and community in Poland. As the photographs show, a shift in Jewish equality and power occurred when Jews moved from participating in Parliament to traveling on freight trains and leaving Poland. One could fully understand the importance of the photographs from the background information provided by Lloyd P. Gartner in History of the Jews in Modern Times and Ezra Mendelsohn in The Jews of East Central Europe Between the World Wars. Both Gartner and Mendelsohn highlight the difficulties Polish Jews faced with those who attempted to assimilate into the Polish nation. When assimilation became too difficult and inaccessible, Polish Zionists and anti-Semites believed that emigration was the only solution. The Jews of Poland were very politically involved, as the photographs in Images Before My Eyes show. The minority protection clauses of the Treaty of Versailles and the 1921 Polish Constitution granted Jews equal rights and cultural autonomy (Dobroszycki 128). Poland's political system allowed the election of many Jews to both houses of Parliament and to municipal councils. Images Before My Eyes shows the first national convention of Jewish municipal representatives in Poland on page 134. As Images Before My Eyes shows, voters could be seen lining up at the polls in a Jewish neighborhood of Warsaw to elect a representative. .... middle of paper ... sellers and work accomplished that the Poles could not. Politically, Jews participated in elections for Polish representatives but also held representative positions themselves. Culturally, Jews created communities and organizations that benefited them, such as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. However, once the Poles began to believe that the Jews were becoming nationalists, they withdrew their protection of the Jews and became hostile. Pogroms were organized and the only solution to the conflict and tensions between Jews and Poles was emigration. Works cited by Dobroszycki, Lucjan and Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett. Np: Schocken, 1994. Print. Gartner, Lloyd P. History of the Jews in modern times. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2001. Print. Mendelsohn, Ezra. The Jews of Central and Eastern Europe between the World Wars. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1983. Print.