Auschwitz

A recent work trip to the Middle East with a short layover in Krakow gave me the opportunity to explore Auschwitz: the largest mass murder site in human history.

Feelings of great sadness, heartbreak, horror and cruelty. A part of history I haven’t been able to stop thinking about since my return last month.

How was this allowed to happen? Why did it happen? How can such devastating cruelty by humankind be possible? …I am still asking myself these questions and have started reading books by survivors to understand as much as possible.

Arriving at Birkenau for opening time, I found myself 1 of only 3 people in this huge area (346 acres/ almost 200 football pitches, the scale the place was huge) for a couple of hours in silence with the snow falling, a feeling I can’t quite explain. Time stood still and disappeared quickly as the first of many tour buses arrived.

I wanted to take in as much as possible and with time against me I left my trusted Canon at the hotel and thought best to go ‘auto and fast’ with just my iPhone. A handful of images below.

The guided tours are an absolute must but being winter with limited daylight hours I had to leave and head next to Auschwitz I. Gas chambers, crematoriums the barracks…a day that will remain in memory forever of this saddening traffic place in history.