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JamesBardolph β The Gate
Published: 2005-10-14 20:30:19 +0000 UTC; Views: 12236; Favourites: 388; Downloads: 947
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Description
European Photo Trip #2: Krakow, Poland. Day trip to Auschwitz.The entrance gate that prisoners called the "Gate of Death" was located in the main SS guardhouse building. Trains carrying deportees entered here after May 1944 on the railroad spur that extended into the camp.
Auschwitz II (Birkenau) is the camp that people know simply as "Auschwitz". It was the site of imprisonment of hundreds of thousands, and the murder of over one million people, mainly Jews.
The camp's main purpose, however, was not internment with forced labor (as Auschwitz I & III) but rather extermination. For this purpose, the camp was equipped with 4 crematoria with gas chambers; each gas chamber was designed to hold up to 2500 people at one time.
Large-scale extermination started in Spring 1942.
Text sources: auschwitz-muzeum.oswiecim.pl , Wikipedia
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Comments: 188
I'am from Cracow, I live in Wieliczka, and I've been for many times in Oswiecim and one time in Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. This picture is... great, genius and thoroughly shows this horrible atmosphere.
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That's a strong picture..
The dark colours are really expressing the horror of such a place. It's like the atmosphere was stopped and toke in the picture.
''Auschwizt - The meaning of pain''
Great photo.
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I was there about one year ago, it's terrible what happened there! It just felt like I saw ghost everywhere, and allthough the sun was shining that day, it felt like it was some sort of shadow over the whole place...
Beautiful picture! I really like the dark and gloomy look of it, it suits the situation very well!
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I`ve been there and it is a odd place and don`t understand this wrong but IΒ΄m a german antifascist and I went there with my class and we were the only crowd which didn`t laughed and didnΒ΄t made any jokes and all the other people and crowds were laughing and jumping around and stuff like that so it was so weared and scarry at the same time that I could not enjoy ( if you find a better word for that please tell me) this trip becaus eIΒ΄ve read so much about the hole time and the things happende there.
It is shocking!!!!!
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When they mature they may have a different view of it. Thanks
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These traintracks hold so much foreshadowing. I love how the clouds are in this picture, it feels like if you go in there, something terrible is going to happen to you.
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this is so beautiful and realistic picture. I mean that it shows the true. looks like broken heaven. sadness and melancholy emit form this photo too. awesome.
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I was there 3 weeks ago...
I lived 100 km prom this place...
I 've learned about it since 15 years..
But for me is so strange, that i don't know what to write...
I think that it isn't a gate to Oswiecim, but to brzezinki, is it?
wonderful photo!
fav.
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This picture is the exact reason I am attempting photography. Beautiful and truely inspiring.
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I was just recently in Poland on The March of the Living. I went to Auschwitz and Birkenau. Everyday I think about what I saw, every minute my heart throbs with remembrance. Your picture brings to life the overwhelming emotions which surface when seeing such a place as Birkenau; the anger, frustration, hatred, fear, and confusion. I too have pictures of Auschwitz-Birkenau and would be most appreciative if you would look them over.
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I was just recently in Poland on The March of the Living. I went to Auschwitz and Birkenau. Everyday I think about what I saw, every minute my heart throbs with remembrance. Your picture brings to life the overwhelming emotions which surface when seeing such a place as Birkenau; the anger, frustration, hatred, fear, and confusion. I too have pictures of Auschwitz-Birkenau and would be most appreciative if you would look them over.
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Reading your discription and the photo itself bring tears to my eyes
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This photo and also this place is deep in emotions. I mean at the end of this rail track, the dead was there waiting all these poor and innocent people.
It is horrible to imagine yourself at that time... I can feel through your photography all these fears that are in this place.
Of crouse, today we have to remember such event or place in order to prevent them in the futur.
Ok, I know my english is very, very bad, but I hope that you understand what I mean.
If not, I can try later to be more clear.
A great photography with a lot of significations.
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I understood perfectly, thank you.
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those places have such weird energy....... i remember i went into one of the places where hitler was hiding out... spoooooky.......
anyway i just thouth this photo looked really good.... i like it... it kinda has a deeper meaning ot the world in it...
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...... 
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I read through a few of the comments others made in regard to this photo and paused on the one where the deviant claimed it didn't 'do it' for them. That this photo had been done before.
I agree with the statement, but I don't agree with the outlook. It seems that people grow disinterested even with one of the most immoral and unjustifiable acts of blind hatred our modern world has ever come [and hopefully will ever come] to know.
I'm somewhat obsessive when it comes to Holocaust anything, whether it be literature or film or photos. Coming from Poland, I had a lot of family that fell to the Nazi's within concentration camps and upon the streets of their own home towns. It's a piece of history that, though I didn't actually live through it, is always with me.
Images like this, when they're as well done as this one, really get me. They remind me not only of the terror that occured throughout Poland and Eastern Europe, but also of the hopeless and desperate bravery of people who could have been, and almost were me. Had history only gone in a slightly different direction... I wouldn't be here. So thank you for this image. Though it may not mean much to many, it certainly means the world to me.
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powerful. how controlled the shot is, really rigid speeking to its contents...
if that makes any sense at all...
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i have not been there...but your image helps me feel what you saw on that day.
your image tells the story ... there is nothing pretty ...
thank you for this image and your perspective.
focus 2
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I really like this image!
I went there in September 2005 and it is a very sad place.
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Bravo
You captured the mood in this photo very well
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sorry but this really doesn't do it for me.
how many times has this photo been taken already? at exactly the same spot? with the same tones?
what does this add?
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Have a look at the comments here.
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I was really tired yesterday, sorry if I came across the wrong way man. What I actually meant to say was that I love your work & your gallery - it's fresh, fast-paced and innovative. Compared to that, I think this piece is of a considerably lower level - it just has been done before so many times, exactly the same photo... But that's just my opinion.
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I appreciate your opinion - thank you.
I saw a photo of Birkenau in Photography Monthly (magazine), same idea as this one, shot closer with landscape dimensions, with even moodier clouds, which inspired my whole trip to the place. I knew what photo I wanted to take before I even got there.. not the same as his, but he showed me what was possible and I did my own version of it, and brought it to the users of deviantART. I have not seen that many shots of auschwitz to be honest, but I am not surprised to hear it has been done many times. The intention was bring feeling to the people viewing the photo in the strongest way possible, and I think for the most part I have achieved that.
What would you have done there?
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Sorry for being so late to reply - your last question shut me up. I honestly have no clue what I would have done there.
Maybe over where you live the picture isn't as common as over here - here it is pretty much the standard shot that accompagnies anything related to Auschwitz - or any of the camps. I understand it's entirely different if you hadn't seen the shot before. If I hadn't seen the shot before I probably would have taken the same - it's perfect - in a cruel way.
So once again my apologies for my initial harsh comment without explanation. I just thought the idea was overdone. Technically though, your shot is pretty fucking fantastic. I don't know if you used a red filter or adjusted the channels in post; but the darkened sky and the strong contrasts are very impressive and overwhelming - exactly what this picture needs.
And I can't thank you enough for the watch. As I said, I was harsh on this deviation because I really love all of your work. Looking forward to more of it!
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Incredible incredible incredible. I want this in my living room, as soon as I can afford it.
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haha, very funny.
if that was not a joke, you should certainly overthink, WHY you'd hang up this print. it has nothing to do with the artistic value of this great pic, but some photos are not suited for (normal) living rooms. it's strange, but i could, however, imagine this quite well in a local cafΓ© where people meet to talk about daily buisness, politics and read newspapers.
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i didn't want to imply anything.
i just met enough people who thought it would be "cool" to have it hanging above their couch. id do have nothing in general against putting it in a frame. but you historic interest explains much. sorry, if I offended YOU. since i am german AND historican, i may have a distorted perception concerning that matter.
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Not a joke! Though, I can see how it'd come off that way to one who doesn't know me. I'm sorry if I offended.
I'm just a girl who is deeply, deeply interested in holocaust history. I collect literature and memorabilia from the period, and because of that this photo really moves me and I'd love to see it every day. I do plan on buying it when I'm financially able to indulge in purchasing art, I hope that doesn't seem sick!
Sorry to confuse.
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[[[[*damn* wrong reply button. SORRY fakfest for defacing your gallery *blush*]]]]
i didn't want to imply anything.
i just met enough people who thought it would be "cool" to have it hanging above their couch. id do have nothing in general against putting it in a frame. but you historic interest explains much. sorry, if I offended YOU. since i am german AND historican, i may have a distorted perception concerning that matter.
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We can not forget that even though Auschwitz and a lot of extermination camps (from WW2) are placed in Poland, that Final Solution (EndlΓΆsung) were established by German Nazis.
I am so fuck*** angry, when some journalists in the western countries (vide in Sweden in this year) write about "Polish extermination camps". It is totally misunderstanding.
I did not write that to say something bad about modern Germany and I realize that You all know the history... but...
Good photo, strong context.
Is there any special permission needed to take photos in Auschwizt?
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No special permission is required to shoot there, no.
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Thanks for attention and anserws
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this is not my gallery, but having visited auschwitz twice myself i feel qualified to answer your question:
i can relate to your point of few - however oswieciem has always been in poland, as well es camps at the eastern border. it was occupied as a "protectorate" but never came to be part of the "Reich". i think people KNOW the difference and understand it as a geographic description.
concerning taking photos: i darkly remember a sign saying not to photograph certain areas, but our guide told us not to care about that as long as we use the camera in a dignified way (which obviously meant not to to run around like a bunch of asian tourists - sorry for the clichΓ© - and turning off the flash inside the baracks because of sensitive historical artifacts).
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This photo gave me goosebumps.
Such a terrible history.
I think you've really captured the coldness and sadness of Auschwitz.
Well done.
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4 crematoria with gas chambers; each gas chamber was designed to hold up to 2500 people at one time....
Speechless...
Like many have said, it makes me shudder, seeing the photo, and reading the caption.
I can't even imagine what it would feel like to be there, Each step closer to it would be harder to take.
Oustanding photo. Thanks.
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Also: By 1941, Auschwitz had five furnaces of three crucibles each, linked to a common smokestack. This works out, theoretically, to 1,440 bodies per 24 hour period, or 532,000 per year. The capability of the crematoria to dispose of over a million bodies at Auschwitz in the course of several years was certainly there. The realities of the process, however, which takes quite a toll on the machinery, were quite another thing. In short, the Nazis had a terrible time disposing of the bodies they were gassing. The crematoria were constantly breaking down. This is why we have so many reports (and a photograph) of the mass burnings of bodies in open pits and fields--yet another convergence of evidence.
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No, not 2,500. Guess someone added one zero. [link] [link]
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SQUEE!! i love this photo! An instant :fav+:! The perspecive and use of angles from the tracks leading to the building makes for a very visually pleasing photo.
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Wow. That is really wonderful. Even the sky and everything makes it all look so... ominous. That's an amazing shot.
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blinding composition.... keep it up!
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A wonderful photo, but a shame it's such a terrible place. Almost makes it hard to appreciate as art.
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