Berg schoenen in concentratiekamp Neuengamme Possibly 1945

Curator: Good day. I’d like to introduce "Berg schoenen in concentratiekamp Neuengamme," or "Mountain of shoes in Neuengamme concentration camp," a gelatin-silver print, possibly from 1945, by Anefo, housed here at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: My god, what a heartbreaking image. The sheer scale of that… pile… is overwhelming. Like a dark mountain range, built of individual lives cut short. So stark and desolate. Curator: Indeed. This photograph offers a stark view of the unimaginable scale of atrocities perpetrated during the Holocaust. It captures a heap of shoes, confiscated from prisoners at the Neuengamme concentration camp, as evidence after the war. Think about what each pair represents. Editor: It’s sickening. You see more than just discarded footwear, don't you? Each scuff, each tear in that leather is a testament to forced marches, to survival, to resistance perhaps, or maybe just a sign of someone running one last time... trying. Curator: Precisely. The seemingly mundane, like shoes, became tools of dehumanization. Stripping prisoners of their possessions was part of breaking their identity. Their past. Even their dignity. The banality of evil as Arendt defined it is laid bare. Editor: I can almost feel the silence that surrounds it. The image is almost suffocating in its monochrome emptiness. You look for faces, you look for some semblance of the people these objects were tied to but there is just... this vast, accusing void. A visual echo of horror. Curator: As a historical record, it underscores the camp system’s mechanics, while on a deeper level, the image functions as a profound act of remembrance. Anefo’s picture gives form to what we are not meant to forget, the lasting responsibility of bearing witness. Editor: It sticks with you, doesn’t it? That image just bores a hole in you. I find myself thinking, not just of the shoes, but the path ahead, and making damned sure we do better by each other on this road. Curator: Exactly. It serves as an unending question and a potent charge, a warning to future generations, and for today's.