Danny Ghitis just finished a re-edit of his Land of Os project, a series about the town of Oswiecim and the location of Auschwitz.

Auschwitz is recognized as the epicenter of the Nazi genocidal campaign, and a universal symbol of human suffering. Every year more than a million tourists visit the concentration camp museums to pay respects to about the same number of innocents murdered there. Most travelers are unaware Auschwitz is in an old Polish town called Oświęcim. Those who do notice- a nearby shopping mall, high school sweethearts holding hands, nicely-dressed families headed to church- are faced with an impossible question: how can life exist in the aftermath of such overwhelming evil?

For hundreds of years before the German occupation, Jews and Christians lived harmoniously in the town of about 12,000. After the war, the leftover chemical factory (Auschwitz III- Monowitz) was exploited by the new communist regime and the town grew to about 50,000 inhabitants. Now in it’s fourth political chapter since the 1930s, OÅ›wiÄ™cim hangs in the balance between the rapidly developing Polish economy and it’s own uncertain future.

As an American Jew and grandson of a Holocaust survivor, this is a personal reflection on Oświęcim, and represents my ongoing interest in exploring the nuances of human identity.

To see more images from the series visit Danny’s Portfolio site.