Auschwitz-Birkenau

[aberal]

Here's some cheery holiday snaps with a difference. Went to Krakow in February and was surprised to find that Auschwitz-Birkenau was only a few kilometres way. There can be few more incongruous things than getting yourself on an organised bus tour to visit this place. It was one of the very few times I questioned myself taking photographs - as I lined myself up to get the perfect angle/composition it was hard to divorce myself from the enormity of what went on here.

I'm of the view that everyone on the planet should visit here. But it's a Godawful place, it really is. Affected me badly. Anyone visiting should be warned that if all else isn't bad enough, they actually take you inside the gas chamber. I only lasted a few seconds.

#1 The famous "Work makes you free" gate at Auschwitz. I'd always thought it was huge. It's surprisingly small.

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#2 It was previously a Polish Army barracks and without the barbed wire and ominous German signs, it still looks like a barracks. Now a museum, there are rooms full of hair, spectacles, suitcases, shoes - adults and children's, which, not surprisingly you're not allowed to photograph.

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#3 This was just next to an execution wall where mass murder went on. Couldn't bring myself to photograph it.

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#4 Auschwitz was a sort of work camp. A few kilometres away is Birkenau with the much photographed railway lines running in to it. It was the mass extermination camp.

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#5 This is the women's side of the camp. The men's side was the other side of the railway lines.

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#6 The weather added to the gloom.

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[EdinburghGary]

Horrific subject, well done for the photos. I don't think I would manage to step foot in the place, would be too emotional.

Gary.

 

[Fionab]

its one place i wold love to shoot, hopefully next year! well done on the shots excellent!

 

[fracster]

I went a few years ago, I took no photos, I was deeply moved, a place that everyone should visit.

 

[aberal]

Horrific subject, well done for the photos. I don't think I would manage to step foot in the place, would be too emotional.

I was prepared to be emotional, but hadn't really prepared myself for how emotional the visit would be. I removed the photographs from Lightroom because I didn't like constantly coming across them. It's only now - 6 months on, that I find that I'm detached from them.

 

[Les McLean]

Excellent, haunting images, that reflect the horror of the place exceptionally well.

Whenever I see images like this, I'm reminded the of the description I read in the Rough Guide to Poland, extracted from 'All Played Out' by Pete Davies:

When you go in there's a sign in five languages that says, "There were four million."

I broke down about halfway around Auschwitz, walking away from the wall against which 20,000 people were shot. There's a shrine there now; schoolgirls were laying flowers and lighting candles.

But it wasn't that particular detail that got to me. And it wasn't the stark physical evidence in earlier blocks of the conditions in which people had lived, sleeping seven or nine together on the straw in three-high tiers the size of double beds.

It wasn't the enormous glass-fronted displays in which, on angeled boards sometimes dozens of feet long, lay great piles of wretchedly battered old boots, or children's shoes. It wasn't the bank of suitcases, their owner's names clumsily written on them in faded paint, or the heaps of broken spectacles, of shaving brushes and hairbrushes.

It wasn't the case the length of a barrack room in the block whose subject was 'Exploitation of Corpses', the case filled with a bank of human hair, or the small case to the one side of that, showing the tailor's lining that was made from it.

It wasn't the relentless documentary evidence, the methodical, systematic, compulsive bureaucracy of mass murder.

And it wasn't the block beside the yard in which the shrine now stands, in whose basement are the 'standing cells' used to punish prisoners, measuring ninety by ninety centimeters (3 feet x 3 feet). People were wedged together into these bare brick cubicles, and left to starve or suffocate pinned helplessly upright. In other cells in the same basement, the first experiments with Zyklon B as a means of mass extermination were conducted.

It was all of these things cumulatively crushing you, a seeping evil from every wall and corner of the place, from every brick of every block, until you reach your limit and it overwhelms you. For a short while I found myself crying, leaning against the wire. Like they tell you--the birds don't sing.

 

[ranarama]

I'm of the view that everyone on the planet should visit here.

I'm of the same opinion, I've not been there but I intend to one day. Unfortunately I don't think everyone on the planet, given what's going on around the world, would have the same emotions as you or I would.

With these kind of places I think when it comes to taking the photos you need to have some empathy with the place and that's come across here. It's a bleak place with a distressing past. If you're going to take a photo that needs to come across and I think you've done that well. The train tracks one is very good. It's a cliched shot looking back towards the camp along the train tracks but it has always been a strong image. It's interesting you chose not to post that and had a more 'outward looking' photo. Was that intentional?

#3 is (I hesitate to call it my favourite) the best of the set for me for compostition. It's almost fitting being drab and grey in black and white but I'd be tempted to push the contrast and processing on these to come up with something quite stark.

On a similar theme I went to the 9/11 site a couple of years ago and refused to take photos there as all the tourists were lined up in front of what was just a big hole in the ground taking photos of their family in a 'look at me and look where I am' kind of crap shot they'd take at Disney with their thums in the air. I just thought it was in incredibly bad taste, in the same way it would have been taking similar photos at Auschwitz. I just felt quite moved by the place and so annoyed with the 'happy snappers' like it was some kind of attraction rather than where thousands of people died in a moment of horror. It needs a bit of humility and respect for what happened there and I think you've done well.

 

[Flash In The Pan]

It's not somewhere I want to visit, but I know it is somewhere that I should and hopefully one day I will. I don't think it is wrong to take pictures there, it is a shameful part of our history that should be documented and never, ever forgotten.

 

[JasonPC]

There can be few more incongruous things than getting yourself on an organised bus tour to visit this place. It was one of the very few times I questioned myself taking photographs - as I lined myself up to get the perfect angle/composition it was hard to divorce myself from the enormity of what went on here.

I'm of the view that everyone on the planet should visit here. But it's a Godawful place, it really is.

It is a shocking place to visit. I've been there twice, the first time in winter '05. There were heavy snow falls the days before we went there and the temperature was -5 when we visited the memorial. We walked up the steps to the guardtower at Birkenau and the sight of the huge camp, covered in snow, and the biting cold just hammered home how unbelievably cruel this place was.

I agree with your point that people should be made to visit places like this. I've spent a fair bit of time in Poland and Germany and always ensure I visit any museums and memorials I'm near to.

Did you visit the 'Sauna' building at the back of Birkenau with the wall of photos taken from people arriving at the camp?

 

[JasonPC]

On a similar theme I went to the 9/11 site a couple of years ago and refused to take photos there as all the tourists were lined up in front of what was just a big hole in the ground taking photos of their family in a 'look at me and look where I am' kind of crap shot they'd take at Disney with their thums in the air. I just thought it was in incredibly bad taste, in the same way it would have been taking similar photos at Auschwitz. I just felt quite moved by the place and so annoyed with the 'happy snappers' like it was some kind of attraction rather than where thousands of people died in a moment of horror. It needs a bit of humility and respect for what happened there and I think you've done well.

We visited the Dachau camp memorial last year when we were in Munich. Some idiot jumped over the barrier and shoved his head in one of the crematoria ovens so his mate could take his photo. Exactly the kind of 'look where I am shot' you mention and appallingly tasteless. :bang:

 

[CaptainPenguin]

Never been there and probably never will but its vital that those of you who do go take these images and publish them so that nobody ever forgets what happened here and make damn sure that it never happens again

 

[jpwone]

I was there in 2007. Auschwitz itself was disturbing but I had a strange sense of commercialisation and this actually left me reasonably detached.

http://www.8by10.co.uk/imaging/auschwitz1/index.html

Birkenau was another story though. The sheer scale of the place struck me and had a huge impact. As far as you could see there were the remains of chimneys from the huts. The huts themselves that are still intact seemed to radiate pure misery. In retrospect I should have spent longer there and walked the full perimeter. It really must have been absolute hell.

 

[Cutsie]

I went there when in college...a very moving and emotional experience.

I agree everyone should visit this place, but I won't be going there a second time!!

 

[rh1944]

In the Ascent of Man, Jacob Bronowski said "When people believe that they have absolute knowledge, with no test in reality, this is how they behave. This is what men do when they aspire to the knowledge of gods...". He was crouching over a puddle at the time. When I saw #3, Bronowski and his analysis of what can happen, sprang to mind. Brilliant set of images. Well done for taking them and sharing them with us.

 

[tigerimages]

Very emotive subject yet the photos are disappointing, although you don't need to offer any apology for it. There were photos on here yesterday from inside a crematorium. I'm pleased that you know when to draw the line and put your camera away. Some places shouldn't be photographed.

 

[Knikki]

I have been to this place and found it fasinating.

It only struck home what went on when you vist the rooms that have loads of, suit cases, hair, glasses and other personal belongings.

Hopefully will go back in the next couple of years

 

[Smiffy]

Horrific subject, well done for the photos. I don't think I would manage to step foot in the place, would be too emotional.

Gary.

I echo these sentiments.
The photos are first class by the way

 

[robbie t]

We visited the Dachau camp memorial last year when we were in Munich. Some idiot jumped over the barrier and shoved his head in one of the crematoria ovens so his mate could take his photo. Exactly the kind of 'look where I am shot' you mention and appallingly tasteless. :bang:

That is shocking, sometimes acts of our "fellow man" just makes you want to shake your head.

The images are very powerful, i don't think we need to critique them as it seems very much beside the point. Thanks for sharing

 

[cason]

You have caught the feel of the dreadful place very well, I too think we should all visit these places, its part of our history that needs to be remembered. I for one dont mind photos being taken, it keeps the memories of those lost in our hearts.

We went to Terezin Concentration Camp a couple of years ago - a haunting feeling it brought out emotions in both myself and others looking around. Some including me had tears rolling down our faces. Our guide rightly so give us graphic statistics and descriptions of life in there

 

[redeyeshev]

I've only seen photos of Auschwitz on overcast days and mostly in monochrome. I wonder how the shots would feel if they had blue skies and fluffy clouds or an impressive sunset?

 

[JasonPC]

I've only seen photos of Auschwitz on overcast days and mostly in monochrome. I wonder how the shots would feel if they had blue skies and fluffy clouds or an impressive sunset?

It reminds me of what Spielberg said of his decision to shoot Schindler's List in black and white. He mentioned that people are so used to seeing footage of that type, and from that time, that it would just look 'wrong' in colour and so he really had no choice but to shoot in black and white.

We're going back to Krakow this Christmas with my sister in law and her husband. They have mentioned that they would like to visit Auschwitz and, since I wasn't 'into' photography on my previous visits, I'm going to have a chance to try and take some 'proper' photos. I think it will be difficult, aside from the fact that I'm a noob to photography, because the sites have probably been photographed from every angle a hundred times over. I've got a book called Lebensraum by a 'tog called Grant Delin. His photos are stunning and about as un-cliched as you can get.

 

[aberal]

The train tracks one is very good. It's a cliched shot looking back towards the camp along the train tracks but it has always been a strong image. It's interesting you chose not to post that and had a more 'outward looking' photo. Was that intentional?

Yes it was. I did actually frame the shot then decided against taking it.

 

[ppp]

Never been but would find it interesting to go, it makes me feel like when I went to the war graves in Belgium, I found it staggering just how many graves there were in some cemetaries, it is so moving and emotional and odd how something so 'inanimate' can conjour such emotion and feeling.

 

[aberal]

Did you visit the 'Sauna' building at the back of Birkenau with the wall of photos taken from people arriving at the camp?

I didn't no. One of the most moving exhibits in Auschwitz for me, for some reason, wasn't the hair or shoes, but the cooking implements which people had taken with them because they had expected to need to cook for themselves when they got there. It's those little human things that underline the cruelty and make it so devastating.

 

[aberal]

I've only seen photos of Auschwitz on overcast days and mostly in monochrome. I wonder how the shots would feel if they had blue skies and fluffy clouds or an impressive sunset?

Interesting point and yes, of course, I did convert most of them to black and white. It just seems to lend itself to it. I can't give you the fluffy clouds and sunset, but here's the last shot in colour. I don't think that it looks like a much better place.

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[aberal]

We're going back to Krakow this Christmas with my sister in law and her husband. They have mentioned that they would like to visit Auschwitz and, since I wasn't 'into' photography on my previous visits, I'm going to have a chance to try and take some 'proper' photos. I think it will be difficult, aside from the fact that I'm a noob to photography, because the sites have probably been photographed from every angle a hundred times over.

In spite of my own doubts, which I mentioned at the start, I don't think that there is any reason why you shouldn't. My SLR got lost with my bag on the flight over so I took the shots with a borrowed Canon compact. But I don't think I would really want to go back and try again. Once was enough - but good luck. Post them here when you can.

 

[markf]

i would like to visit this place in the future, i think these pictures are very good considering the subject, and your right the pictures don't look the same in colour there is a web site with panoramic pictures of the place. but the descriptions of the place made me see it in black and white if you can understand what im trying to say