The video ‘Block 46’ was made in response to my participation in the international exchange for descendants of former prisoners, that took place at the Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum and the Szczypiorski House, Oranienburg (15 – 18 Sept 2022).
The program and project was called: “Voices of the Next Generations”. Part of this project included an Audio-Visual collage workshop with Leona Goldstein.
‘Block: 46’, considers the barrack (no. 46) where my late father Tadeusz Witkowski was housed during his internment at the former concentration camp at Sachsenhausen (1940 – 45).
The spoken texts reveal remembered conversations with my father and the impact of his trauma and the wider impact on family life. The texts ask questions and search for those conversations that remain unspoken. It is as if I was searching for the voices and spirit of my father and his comrades during this terrible time.
The work also encourages the audience to place themselves at the memorial site, positing questions such as:
‘How disconnected are we from this, the remains of a crime, now memorialised for contemporaneous consumption?’
The violence, terror and brutality have left this place (for now), but continue to exist in the world around us.
Author
George Saxon
