My Journey

The purpose of my Journey was to find out and see for myself what had happened in those Dark days.

I discovered many things while I was in Poland and even more after my return.

I was struck by the beauty of the place and the ugliness, by the dark and the light. By the hope-less despair and by the hope.

I was struck

By the magnitude of the lies and deception,

By the efficiency of the production line murder,

By the opportunism of the Nazi's,

By the "Deutche Ordenung."

I was struck by the gullibility of so many people for so long, until they realized what was happening and took a different perspective.

My father died in 1994. I went to mourn for him. I went to mourn for my loss of my loved ones that I never knew. I went to place a plaque in the ground in their memory.

I realized that each person who dies has a right to have something marking their place of death.

I realized that each person who survives has a need to mourn their loss- thereby freeing them-selves in some way.

We cannot undo the past, but in order for us to move on we have to deal with painful issues. We cannot deny them and be whole. We have to go through all of life's processes including death to be whole people.

These photographs represent my journey.

These photographs attempt to take the viewer through the beauty and deception into the camps and barracks, into the shower and gas chamber, through the crematorium into ashes and memorial stones.

I hope that in some way that the Photographs that I have shared with you, the viewer, will enable you to derive benefit from my experience.

Mike Kaufmann