Black and white photos from Auschwitz Nazi camps given colour and ‘life’
13752 Mins Read
Following months of research and painstaking work, Artist Marina Amara, transformed collection of forgotten black and white photos of prisoners from the Nazi camps in Auschwitz and brought nine victims of the Nazi regime back into the present. “When we see the photos in black and white, we get the feeling that those events happened only in the history books,’ she said.
By restoring the colours on her face, I was able to show the colours of the blood and the bruises, which made everything even more real.’ The artist, from Brazil, said it’s much easier to relate to people when we see them in colour. ‘These people were human beings who had dreams, ambitions, fears, friends, family, and had all this taken from them,’ she added.
These photos are part of the Auschwitz Memorial Archive stores which preserves 38,916 photos that remain from approximately 80,000 portraits taken by the Nazi guards.
One particular set of photos belong to Czesława Kwoka was deported by the Nazis from her home in the Zamość region of Poland as part of their plan to create ‘living space’ in the east.
She arrived with her mother at Auschwitz on December 13, 1942, on a train with 318 other women. ‘According to the photographer’s account, Czeslawa had just been beaten by a guard before the photo was taken. ‘Unfortunately, Czeslawa was just one among millions of others, but the expression on her face – so much fear, and at the same time so much courage, will stay with me forever.’
