A publication of photographs featuring the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp during 1944 and today has gone on sale at the memorial museum of the same name.
‘Auschwitz-Birkenau. The Place Where You Are Standing’ is an album of 31 pictures taken by SS men depicting the harrowing extermination of Jews in the camp.
It is set in contrast with present-day photographs of the same locations all taken and collated by Paweł Sawicki.
The images capture the departure of victims from the train, their selection and the final march to the gas chambers.
Secretary of the International Council of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum, Marek Zając, described the effect as “shocking” and added: “When I walk through the camp now, I see something completely different from what I used to see.”
Sawicki said: “There can be no doubt concerning the location of most of the places.
“However, the project was not about creating faithful replicas of the historical photographs. It was rather about reminding the viewer in a profound manner about all that took place here, in this very place.
“While taking the photographs one after another, I could sense the peculiar emptiness more and more. The people, who are the essence of the pictures in the album, were missing. Today, they are not here anymore. Only the place where they were murdered is still here.”
The album has been published in Polish and English and is available in the Museum bookshops as well as through the online bookshop of the Auschwitz Memorial.