Below are a few shots from the Salt Mines in Poland. We went down a set of stairs, a really long set of stairs that took us around 400 feet below the ground. It was unreal, how well the mines were set up. Beautiful reception halls and pools of water surrounded by salt awaited us.
Finally, my set of photos from Auschwitz follow the salt mine photos. Our trip to Auschwitz wasn't a happy one. We had been preparing for this day in our lectures, studying and reading up on the Holocaust. We had visited the concentration camp, Terezin outside of Prague, and various museums including Shindler's Factory in Krakow, Poland. 6 million jews had been massacred in the Holocaust and Auschwitz/Birkenau had been the largest camp to contribute to the death toll.
There was a sense of uneasiness as we set out for Auschwitz on our comfortable charter bus, quite opposite to what the jews experienced when they were crowded into train cars for days until they reached Auschwitz and for most, their imminent death. As we walked around the camp, it felt almost peaceful. How could these empty buildings and ruins hold the history of such terror?
Often times I choose to experience a place without a camera in hand and my eye looking through the viewfinder. However, I decided to photograph my perspective of Auschwitz. I can't possibly show you the vicious crimes against humanity that happened here, only what remains-- The grim walls and bleak atmosphere. The thousands of shoes, eyeglasses, and suitcases preserved in giant piles representing the thousands of innocent lives taken by the Nazis. And although I believe that a place like this must be experienced in person, I do hope you will catch a glimpse of the enormity of the Holocaust and the respect that must be given for those who suffered, as well as the normalcy of life that exists around Auschwitz almost 80 years later.
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