There’s a saying from the War – “All roads lead to Auschwitz.” The meaning is pretty clear. It was the central extermination site set up in a strategic location where it was easily accessible from countries with big Jewish populations.
But that was then, this is now. The camp is still there, bringing in about a million tourists a year. Most take a 1.5 hour train or bus ride from Krakow to the camp, then go back at the end of the day. Most aren’t considering modern Poland, or what life is like for the people who live near this ultimate symbol of evil. The road/railroad/passage to the camp has a lot of historical weight. If you think about the road to Auschwitz I bet you’ll imagine old black and white photographs of cattle cars, barbed wire, SS men, etc. These are memories of actual pictures you’ve seen in textbooks, movies, museums which has transcended society’s visual imprint of the Holocaust. And as a result, of Poland.
So in my back and forth trips I look out the window and try to see things for what they are instead of what history might imagine. It’s an exercise in altering implanted memories that come from old photos. There’s no time to plan the pictures I take because the moments pass by in an instant. Although my split-second reactions are of course affected by my perception of the things I’m seeing, the resulting photos reflect a more accurate reality of the landscape.
