Exterminate

This is part of a moving memorial to the deportation of Jews, homosexuals and other 'deviants' during the Second World War. It's hidden away relatively unknown just round the corner from Notre Dame, and makes for some stunning photos. Here we are inside the structure, which has been designed to make you feel something of what the deportees must have felt, imprisoned between tall narrow walls of grim unforgiving concrete.

 

The thing we are looking at here could almost be a picture on the wall, but in fact is a long tunnel lined with many thousands of little beads, each one representing one of the unfortunates. Apposite cuneiform inscriptions add to the oppressive atmosphere, highlighted in red and capable of bringing a lump to the throat...

I gave the photo a harsh treatment to match the emotions I experience when I enter this shrine. I wanted the violence to be present through the roughness of the walls and the minimalism of the colours. The little flight of steps, for me, say... be careful, we're only a couple of paces away from this madness at any given time... it could have been you.

~ December 2007 - Slide Show ~

 

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