The Album : Auschwitz And Birkenau
A bleak and cold morning, it had snowed the night before and there was quite a dusting on the ground.
Auschwitz at first was a tourist cattle market with group after group having their photo taken under the replica sign. The camp buildings house informative displays and interesting exhibitions but the sheer number of people trying to view them meant you never actually get to take it in properly.
We decided to leave the tour after the first 2 buildings and went to the parimeter to take some photos.
We took the shuttle service to Birkenau where the weather turned even colder, walking round there with thermals and outdoor clothing made you realise how terrible it would be wearing cloth pyjamas. There was a haunted atmosphere here and the sheer size of it is just frightening.
Birkenau actually felt like a concentration camp more than Auschwitz which was originally a Polish army barracks whereas Birkenau was built for the final solution.
After wandering around the camp absorbing the atmosphere, the white of the snow and grey of the clouds, the photos here couldnt be anything other than monochrome.
We returned to Auschwitz afterwards and it was like a different place altogether, the crowds had dissapated and we were able to walk through and look at the exhibitions properly at our own pace. one of the exhibitions had displays of items taken from the people taken to the camps, these huge displays housed hundreds of thousands of items, even if one item was taken from one person, it really put the loss into perspective, and these were only a fraction of the belongings that were saved from the camps.
As part of the "Ban Tourist Bus" campaign, Anyone looking to visit the camps, i would definately suggest taking the public transport there and deciding your route to avoid the tourism crowds because it will give you more of a feeling of what the camps were like.
Auschwitz at first was a tourist cattle market with group after group having their photo taken under the replica sign. The camp buildings house informative displays and interesting exhibitions but the sheer number of people trying to view them meant you never actually get to take it in properly.
We decided to leave the tour after the first 2 buildings and went to the parimeter to take some photos.
We took the shuttle service to Birkenau where the weather turned even colder, walking round there with thermals and outdoor clothing made you realise how terrible it would be wearing cloth pyjamas. There was a haunted atmosphere here and the sheer size of it is just frightening.
Birkenau actually felt like a concentration camp more than Auschwitz which was originally a Polish army barracks whereas Birkenau was built for the final solution.
After wandering around the camp absorbing the atmosphere, the white of the snow and grey of the clouds, the photos here couldnt be anything other than monochrome.
We returned to Auschwitz afterwards and it was like a different place altogether, the crowds had dissapated and we were able to walk through and look at the exhibitions properly at our own pace. one of the exhibitions had displays of items taken from the people taken to the camps, these huge displays housed hundreds of thousands of items, even if one item was taken from one person, it really put the loss into perspective, and these were only a fraction of the belongings that were saved from the camps.
As part of the "Ban Tourist Bus" campaign, Anyone looking to visit the camps, i would definately suggest taking the public transport there and deciding your route to avoid the tourism crowds because it will give you more of a feeling of what the camps were like.