27 January 2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi German concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, where over one million people were murdered, most of whom were Jewish.
To mark the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, and commemorate this important anniversary, UNESCO, in collaboration with the Normandy Region and the Shoah Memorial, hosts the photo exhibition Beyond the Abyss of the Auschwitz-I and Auschwitz-II Birkenau camps by photographer Olivier Mériel. The photos will be exhibited on the fences of the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris from 20 January to 28 February 2025.
Remembering and learning about the Holocaust reveals the dangers of antisemitism, discrimination and dehumanization. UNESCO emphasizes the importance of understanding and addressing the legacies of violent pasts to help develop the knowledge and values to prevent future atrocity crimes.
The "Auschwitz Birkenau - German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp (1940-1945)" was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979.
Born in 1955, Olivier Mériel has been practicing analog black-and-white photography for 45 years, using large-format cameras. His landscape photographs are black-and-white contact prints created with very long exposure times. His work focuses on the interplay of shadow and light.
In January and November 2024, he accompanied two study trips involving high school students from Normandy (France) to the sites of Auschwitz-I and Auschwitz-II Birkenau camps. On each occasion, nearly 150 students and teachers explored the remnants of the Holocaust and the Nazi concentration camp system as part of educational projects designed to encourage young people to reflect on the historical, memorial, and civic dimensions of this genocide. These study trips were organized as part of the «Memory of Auschwitz» initiative led by the Normandy Region and the Shoah Memorial, in partnership with the Normandy Regional Academic Authority and the Regional Directorate for Food, Agriculture, and Forestry of Normandy.
Main Image: The Judenrampe, November 2024 © Olivier Mériel/Mémorial de la Shoah
Anna Melnykova, "Palace of Labor (palats praci), architector I. Pretro, 1916", shot with analog Canon camera, 35 mm Fuji film in March 2022.
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