|
 Each
year I travel to Poland to visit what I refer to as “former
Jewish sites:” a synagogue,
bet midrash,
or
cemetery usually located in any of a thousand small towns
scattered across southern Poland. I go
there to make a
small, personal record of a vanished culture and to pay respect
to that civilization and to its members. I
make no claim to
merit as a photographer; rather, I go to set my feet upon the
ground and to bear witness that someone who is neither Jewish
nor Polish but merely human has a stake in the Shoah. The
photographs shown here are simply by-products of that process.
If anyone finds them instructive
or enlightening, then so much the better.
Over the years several people have facilitated my
travels and the creation of this site. Foremost among
those individuals are my wife Charlotte, Web Master David
Semmel, and my friends, Penny Herbst, Artur Krynski, Zdzislaw
Les, and Vladyslav Tsarynnyk. To them, and to those
intrepid enough to have traveled with me, go my deepest thanks.
- - Charles Burns
|