Collection

Submitted to the 1958 international competition for a memorial for the victims of fascism in Auschwitz-Birkenau, the design of the monument titled “The Road” was based on Hansen’s Open Form concept. Following the assumption that the entire area of the camp was a site of tragic experiences, Hansen’s team proposed to build a wide asphalt road cutting across the site, with the main gate leading to it welded shut. The proposal was meant as a symbolic gesture – an expunction of the crimes committed there as something that should never happen again. The road, accessible to the visitors of the camp, was to be the backdrop for people’s individual commemorative actions, where rocks associated with Jewish tradition could be laid, or other objects of commemoration could be placed. The camp barracks surrounding the area were to remain untouched, left to a gradual entropy. Moreover, the entire site would slowly but surely be taken over by the encroaching woods, alluding to the time that has elapsed since the tragic events.