A Testament that Will Never Fade
By David Fine
30 May 2008
Most high school classes in my area take senior trips to places like Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. My class spent their senior trip touring the concentration camps of Poland for one week, and the land of Israel for another. It is a profoundly moving trip, and one that spurred me to become more active in photography.
Traveling from death camps like Treblinka, where nothing remains except a massive monument, to those like Majdenek, where the crematory still stands, offered a powerful progression—for both my emotions and my photography. I captured pictures ranging from photojournalistic (I am a contributing photographer to my school newspaper), to abstract in quality.
The trip is an international program called the March of the Living, and our bus of 24 students and 4 adults based out of Dallas, joined 180 people in the Southern Region, which joined over 15,000 participants worldwide. On Thursday, May 1, Yom Hashoa (Holocaust Memorial Day), those 15,000 people converged on Auschwitz to stage a march of the living to Birkenau as a memorial to the death marches the Nazis forced their victims to endure in the waning days of the war. As a participant attempting to savor this unique experience, I found it hard to capture the scale of the actual march. Rather, I focused on the scenery and people that stood out to me. This photo essay consists of the pictures I took that day, and those that I captured touring the camps for a week. The experience moved me—I hope these pictures move you.
Photography is crucial in the preservation of evidence of such atrocities as the Holocaust. In the age where digital photography enables the capture of every second of one's life, it is just as important to document those willing to destroy lives. As the wounds and memories of the Holocaust fade, and as Holocaust deniers become more prevalent, it gives me great pleasure to know that my pictures—a testament to the atrocities carried out—will never fade.
2 responses
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missy corrales gave props (3 May 2009):
extremely difficult to look at knowing the pain & suffering that happened here. But we should not look away so we never forget!
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Janice Mezzacappa (Deleted) gave props (30 Jul 2009):
Excellent images David of a moment in time that was so devastating and heart-wrenching. I was there and the tears flowed. Never forget!! Great job David!
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