All proceeds from the book will be donated to “Dror,” a rehabilitation program supporting IDF soldiers coping with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Two years after the October 7 attacks, award-winning photojournalist Chen G. Schimmel — winner of the 2024 “Local Testimony” Photo of the Year award — has released her first book, 7 October | Testimony. Now available in stores and online, the book documents the aftermath of the tragedy through powerful images, personal letters, eulogies, biblical verses and quotes. All proceeds will go to “Dror,” a program run by the Summit Institute that helps rehabilitate IDF combat veterans suffering from PTSD.
Just days after the attacks, Schimmel, 26, who grew up in London and immigrated to Israel eight years ago, traveled to Kibbutz Be’eri to capture the unfolding events. She photographed the devastation: burned homes and kibbutzim, emergency teams on site, families forced to evacuate and ZAKA rescue teams at work.
Over the past two years, Schimmel has sensitively chronicled the stories of hostage families, Nova festival survivors, soldiers, reservists and Israeli society during one of its darkest chapters. From this work emerged 7 October | Testimony — a visual record combining photographs with testimonies, eulogies and biblical texts to bear witness to events that have reshaped Israeli society.
“Two days after October 7, I arrived in Be’eri. The floors and walls were covered in blood. With one hand I took photos and with the other I helped clean. The silence and the smell will stay with me forever. I knew I was standing inside a fragment of history that must not be forgotten,” Schimmel recalls.
Her lens has since captured intimate and defining moments of resilience and mourning: hostage families — including those of Evyatar David, Omer Wenkert and Emily Hand — wounded soldiers and displaced communities, Nova festival survivors, and even scenes from inside Gaza, including Yahya Sinwar’s abandoned armchair. “It was a small symbol of victory in a sea of pain,” she says. “I promised myself to keep photographing, even in the hardest moments — for the families, for future generations, for our country.”
The book serves as both historical document and testament to pain and resilience. Its cover features a chilling image of handprints on a scorched wall in Be’eri. Months later, during the March of the Living in Poland, Schimmel photographed handprints and scratches left by victims inside a gas chamber at Auschwitz. For Schimmel — the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor — the two images form a single, ongoing story and embody her grandmother’s vow: “Never again.”
In the book’s foreword, President Isaac Herzog and First Lady Michal Herzog write: “As we reflect on these atrocities, we must remember that the lenses of courageous photographers opened the world’s eyes and brought attention to the depth of the horrors. Among these brave storytellers is Chen G. Schimmel, who, like so many others, chose to stand witness to the unimaginable so future generations will remember.”
Schimmel’s work has already been recognized widely in Israel and abroad. In addition to winning “Local Testimony” Photo of the Year 2024, she was named by The Jerusalem Post as one of its “25 Young Visionaries,” cementing her reputation as one of today’s most influential young Jewish voices.
Out of a sense of mission, Schimmel has pledged all proceeds from the book to “Dror,” the Summit Institute program providing psychological, emotional, social and vocational rehabilitation to combat veterans — based on the understanding that full recovery requires a holistic approach.
7 October | Testimony is available for purchase for 180 NIS — all of which will be donated — at selected bookstores and online at chengschimmel.com
For more information on the “Dror” program, visit drorprogram.org.il