The Holocaust and its near-genocide of the Jews left the world scarred indefinitely. Memorials to those killed are designed with two goals: to remind us all of the consequences of inaction and to prevent humanity from repeating its horrible mistake.

Author Ann Weiss takes a different approach in her recently published remembrance of the Holocaust, "The Last Album: Eyes from the Ashes of Auschwitz-Birkenau." Her book allows readers to see and remember those who were killed as everyday people, not as the dehumanized figures in the horrific photographs of the death camps.

Now, her book has been transformed into a fascinating and emotionally stirring photo exhibition at a Myrtle Beach art museum. Rather than remind readers of the terrible human loss wrought by the Nazis, Weiss reminds people of the Holocaust's greatest tragedy: the lost humanity of its victims.

Within the next room, Weiss found a cache of pre-Holocaust personal photographs of Auschwitz victims that Polish authorities had locked away from the public.

Weiss learned that the photos were all that remained of many of them. After eventually earning rights from the Polish government to duplicate the images locked away for decades, Weiss set out on a personal crusade to give names to the faces held within those timeless photographs and to learn the stories that somehow made each of them important.

"The Last Album," featuring 140 of the photographs, is on display at the Burroughs-Chapin Art Museum in Myrtle Beach. In this thought-provoking exhibit, the faces of Auschwitz's victims are seen in the way they lived, rather than the way they died. Viewers will find children at school, sweethearts falling in love, family vacations and a host of normal, happy situations unfolding in pre-World War II daily life. Unlike most exhibits that deal exclusively with the Holocaust, this exhibit is distinctive in that it resonates with life: family, friends and the things that make us human.

To date, many visitors who have seen the display have left comments saying that their perceptions have been forever altered. One anonymous viewer said that she had believed that "the Jews must have done something to deserve" the tragedy inflicted upon them by the Nazis. "After I saw these photos, I realized they're just like us."

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