River Warta, where prisoners’ ashes from Chelmno death camp were dumped. Zawadka. Poland. 2015
Radostowitz, sub camp of Auschwitz. Prisoners worked felling trees which were transported to Auschwitz II-Birkenau and used to burn bodies in crematoria. Radostowice, Poland. 2016.
Radostowitz, sub camp of Auschwitz. Prisoners worked felling trees which were transported to Auschwitz II-Birkenau and used to burn bodies in crematoria. Radostowice, Poland. 2016.
Auschwitz III-Monowitz. Prisoners used for construction of chemical complex for IG Farben. Monowice, Oswiecim, Poland. 2016.
Tunnels. Ebensee, sub camp of Mauthausen concentration camp. Provided slave labour for underground tunnels for armament works. Nearly a third of prisoners died here. Ebensee, Austria. November 2016
Ebensee, sub camp of Mauthausen concentration camp. Provided slave labour for underground tunnels for armament works. Nearly a third of prisoners died here. Ebensee, Austria. November 2016
Disinfection room, Mauthausen concentration camp. Nearly 200,000 prisoners were kept at Mauthausen. Close to half of these prisoners died. Mauthausen, Austria. November f2016
Parachute jumps. Prisoners forced to jump to their deaths. Mauthausen concentration camp. November 2016
to check location caption. Babi Yar., Kyiv, Ukraine. December 2018.
Internment camp. Fossoli, Modena, Italy. 2019. Departure point to concentration and death camps north of the Alps.
The Bullenhuser Damm School, Hamburg, Germany. March 2018. On April 20, 1945, 20 Jewish children who had been used in medical experiments at Neuengamme were murdered in the basement of the school with their four adult caretakers and six Soviet prisoners.
Firing range where over 4,000 Soviet prisoners were excecuted, Hebertshausen sub camp, Dachau, Germany. 2016
Raisko, sub camp of Auschwitz. Prisoners from here were sent on Death march and on to Ravensbrück, a Nazi concentration camp designated exclusively for females. Rajsko, Poland. 2016.
Entrance to firing range where over 4,000 Soviet prisoners were excecuted, Hebertshausen sub camp, Dachau, Germany. 2016
Mass grave, Kazimierz Biskupi forest. 2018. Here several thousand Jews from Konin, Golina, Zagórowo, Kleczew and Skulsk were murdered. Forced into 2 pre dug pits filled with lime.
Gypsy camp, Litzmannstadt ghetto, holding over 5000. All those still alive from here on January 16th 1942 were transported to Chelmno death camp. Lodz, Poland. 2015
Old Jewish quarter. Edinets, Moldova. 2015
Mobile killing units (Einsatzgruppen) operated throughout the country. Moldova. 2015 The ground moved throughout the north of the country, with those buried alive.
River Dniester, Rezina. Crossing point into Transnistria and site of mass murder. Rezina, Moldova. 2018
River Dniester, Rezina. Crossing point into Transnistria and site of mass murder. Rezina, Moldova. 2018
Jewish cemetery, Valcinet, moldova. 2015. “Vegetables now grow on the land. There is no-one left to bury”. Natalie Filipciuc.
List of graves in house at Jewish cemetery Valcinet, Moldova. 2015
Jewish cemetery, Valcinet, moldova. 2015. “Vegetables now grow on the land. There is no-one left to bury”. Natalie Filipciuc.
Memorial / Mass grave. Jewish cemetery. Edinets, Moldova. 2015
Disembarkation station in valley below Natzweiler concentration camp. Rothau, Alsace, France. 2016
Guards’ vegetable garden at Natzweiler concentration camp , fertilised by the ashes of the incinerated prisoners. Struthof, Alsace, France 2016.tif
Gas chamber at Natzweiler concentration camp, set up to perform experiments on 86 prisoners, opposite the Struthof hotel. Struthof, Alsace, France. 2016
Gas chamber at Natzweiler concentration camp, set up to perform experiments on 86 prisoners, opposite the Struthof hotel. Struthof, Alsace, France. 2016
Woods just outside perimeter fence of Natzweiler concentration camp. Struthof, Alsace, France. 2016.tif
Pink granite from quarry to be extracted by prisoners from Natzweiller concentration camp. Struthof, Alsace, france. 2016
Bone fragments from exhumed, burnt and crushed corpses, seeping through sandy soil. Chelmno death camp. Rzuchow forest, Poland. 2016
Bone fragments from exhumed, burnt and crushed corpses, seeping through sandy soil. Chelmno death camp. Rzuchow forest, Poland. 2016
Area to right of crematoria, forest camp, Chelmno death camp. Rzuchow forest, Poland. 2015.tif
The third pit, forest camp, Chelmno death camp. Stones cover sandy soil to hide bone fragments rising to the surface. Rzuchow forest, Poland. 2015
Niva, Denmark. 2018. In the local brick factory many Danish Jews were hidden before nightfall and walking escape by boat to Sweden.
Escape route and hiding place, Swiss French border. Barberine, Switzerland. 2016
Site of Jewish cemetery, Thessalnoiki, Greece, 2016. Sacked by Nazis to build roads and buildings. Now site of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. 49,000 of the city’s prewar population of 55,000 Jews were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Church where prisoners were kept overnight, next to ‘The Palace’. Chelmno death camp. Chelmno, Poland. 2015

To Bear Witness

To bear witness, again and again, to bear witness despite the passing years, despite the fatigue, the returning pain, despite the welling-up of tears, the words which do not come forth.  

To bear witness for them. Them, my own, the others, those who remained there, those who must never be forgotten, those to whom I promised to stay alive to give voice, to bear witness. 

To bear witness, because some clamour that it is not true, that it did not happen, that we are telling lies, and worse, that we are lying for money! 

To bear witness, to overcome the fear that awakens, the nightmares rising again, the screams in the night. 

To bear witness, to understand the numbers on my arm. 

To bear witness, to say that we were women, men, children like you, like yours, like your parents, your neighbours, those you love or do not love; that we wanted, needed, like you, to laugh, to cry, to smile, to love, learn, work, play, live, TO LIVE… 

To bear witness, to explain that the executioners were not monsters, but men and women who commited monstrous acts. 

To bear witness, to remember those who risked – and sometimes gave – their lives to save others: the Righteous Among the Nations.  

To bear witness, to thank them. To bear witness, so that you, who in your hands hold the world to come, never forget, because it happened.   

—Claire Luchetta-Rentchnik is a descendant of victims of the Holocaust. Living in Switzerland, she works with Holocaust survivors and organises talks in schools about the Holocaust.