Don McCullin In Conversation at the Imperial War Museum, Manchester 15 March 2010 -- 18:00 -- 20:00
What an opportunity to hear from one of my most admired photographers. The In Conversation takes place at the IWM (North) where his new exhibition Shaped by War is on show. The link for tickets is below, get one now -- I have!!
Do you ever walk around at night and see things in black and white? I do!!!!
From a normal fish ‘n’ chip shop window, office lights to installed street art, I look at it differently.
A lovely couple, a lovely day!!
A very thoughtful and powerful day at Telford and Wrekin Council HMD event. Their 8th year.
Put together by a team, who undertake the HMD organising, voluntarily, passionately and professionally, more than I can say about other council’s I have done HMD work for! (and no £5000 for flowers). After the usual press pictures and introductions, at 10.30 am everyone was welcomed to the VIP Suite. The official opening was conducted by Deputy Mayor Cllr Dennis Allen. This was then followed by a talk by myself on the exhibition and on refelction of the Nazi atrocities. Rabbi Odze from the Birmingham Central Synagogoue then followed with a fantastic talk. A poetry reading was read out by Victor Brownlees, Chief Executive of the council and then 2 minute’s of reflection and private thoughts.
The event was well attended by various dignitaries, police and the general public. 2 groups of school children arrived in the afternoon and came well prepared by their teachers and asked some great questions about my images and the holocaust.
A huge well done to the following, for their organisation, but above all their passion for this subject – people who really care about others!
Jan Williams, Maria Bickerton, Mandy Jenkins and Jaz their manager, who let’s them do this important work.
Having arrived on Tuesday afternoon in Telford, for my HMD exhibition, I was met at the train station by Maria, who took me on a lovely walking tour of Bridgnorth. I could not resist a bit of street photography in the process, afterall, who wants to go straight to a hotel!!.
As usual, click to enlarge and comments are welcome!
One of my passions…street photography!
After a great day out shooting some street stuff with my friend Shepy, I decided to add a Street section to my Gallery.
So, here’s a few from today, enjoy, leave comments and visit the rest in the Gallery. (click the image to enlarge)
Treblinka II was a Nazi German extermination camp in occupied Poland during World War II. Between July 1942 and October 1943, around 850,000 people were killed there, more than 800,000 of whom were Jews,including several thousand Gypsies and 2,000 Romani people. The camp was closed after a revolt during which a few Germans were killed and a small number of prisoners escaped. The nearby Treblinka I was a forced labour camp and administrative complex in support of the death camp.
Treblinka II was designed purely for the extermination of people: its killing area measuring 600 by 400 metres. It was the 3rd extermination centre in the Operation Reinhard Action. Operation Reinhard was overseen by SS-Obergruppenführer Odilo Globocnik in occupied Poland as Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler’s deputy. Unlike other Nazi concentration camps, Operation Reinhard camps reported directly to Himmler’s office (the RSHA) in Berlin. Himmler kept the control of the program close to him but delegated the work to Globocnik. Operation Reinhard used the euthanasia program (Action T4) for site selection, construction and the training of personnel.
Before Operation Reinhard over half a million Jews had been killed by the Einsatzgruppen, mobile SS units whose sole purpose was to murder Jews, Poles and commissars in territories conquered by the German army. It became evident, however, that they could not handle the millions of Jews that they had concentrated in the ghettos of occupied countries. So Treblinka, along with the other Operation Reinhard camps were especially designed for the rapid elimination of the Jews in ghettos. Treblinka was ready on July 24, 1942, when the shipping of Jews began: “According to the SS Brigadeführer Jürgen Stroop report, a total of approximately 310,000 Jews were transported in freight trains from the Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka during the period from July 22 to October 3, 1942.
Sobibor was a Nazi German extermination camp set up in the Lublin region of occupied Poland as part of Operation Reinhard. Jews, including Jewish Soviet prisoners of war (PoWs), and possibly Gypsies were transported to Sobibor by rail, and asphyxiated in gas chambers that were fed with the exhaust of a petrol engine. One source states that up to 200,000 people were killed at Sobibor. Thomas Blatt claims that “In the Hagen court proceedings against former Sobibor Nazis, Professor Wolfgang Scheffler, who served as an expert, estimated the total figure of murdered Jews at a minimum of 250,000.In mid-April 1942 when the camp was nearly completed, experimental gassings took place. About 250 Jews from Krychow were brought there for this purpose. Christian Wirth, the commander of Belzec, arrived in Sobibor to witness these gassings.In May 1942, Sobibor began mass gassing operations. Trains entered the railway station and the Jews onboard were told they were in a transit camp, then were forced to undress and hand over their valuables. They were then led along the 100-metre-long (109 yards) Road to Heaven (Himmelstrasse), which led to the gas chambers, where they were killed using carbon monoxide released from the exhaust pipes of tanks.
After a successful revolt on October 14, 1943 about half of the 500 prisoners in Sobibor escaped; the camp was closed and planted with trees days afterwards. A memorial and museum are at the site today.
Had my first night time walkabout of 2010 around the City Centre in the fog last night with a friend of mine
Leading up to Holocaust Memorial Day (27 January 2010). I am releasing every few days, images of the 3 extermination camps (Belzec, Sobibor & Treblinka) which were the purpose built extermination centres for Operation Reinhard. Belzec, was the first camp built and used.
Belzec,was the first of the Nazi German extermination camps created for implementing Operation Reinhard during the Holocaust. Operating in 1942, the camp was situated in occupied Poland about half a mile south of the local railroad station of Bełżec in the Lublin district of the General Government.
At least 434,500 Jews were killed at Bełżec, along with an unknown number of Poles and Roma;only one or two Jews are known to have survived Bełżec: Rudolf Reder and Chaim Hirszman. The lack of survivors may be the reason why this camp is so little known despite its number of victims.