When we think of the Holocaust, images of the horrific suffering of millions of people come to mind. For British historian Tim Cole, the physical environment that the victims of the Holocaust encountered is a complex story of death and survival.
Cole says that for many Westerners, images of the genocide come from the liberation of the camps at the end of the war. But Cole’s research explores the journey of victims through a variety of landscapes across Europe beginning with the first ghettos set up in Poland after Nazi occupation. He says the genocide was constantly on the move rather than a fixed event. He explains how victims were on the move, not just being moved by Germans, but moving themselves in order to avoid the genocide.
Cole’s exploration of the landscapes of the Holocaust — from ghettos to hideouts to camps — tells a powerful story of how millions of people moved across Europe during one of the darkest periods of human history.