O/T Auschwitz

[Racek]

Went for a tour round Auschwitz on the weekend and still can not get over the place.

Some of the group I was with did not want to go and I think they missed out.
So glad I went and what a interesting place to visit.

Anyone else been and what did you think?

 

[User removed 4]

Went for a tour round Auschwitz on the weekend and still can not get over the place.

Some of the group I was with did not want to go and I think they missed out.
So glad I went and what a interesting place to visit.

Anyone else been and what did you think?

I've been, think everyone should go if they get the chance, did you go to birkenau just down the road ? thats where all the trains came in , and was the main camp.

 

[Racek]

Yeah I did. Could not get over the size. I did think that Auschwitz 1 had more of an impact on me. Maybe it was all that human stacked up in that room.

 

[MattBackHome]

Yeah it really stays with you (as well it should.) I still find it hard to comprehend just how vast Birkenhau was, and how eerie both camps remain.

Must visit, I'd say.

 

[Racek]

Meant to say human hair stacked up.

 

[HovaGirl]

I first went when I was 16 in 1969, and it was a life-changing experience. I think it helped to make me more tolerant of people and to be aware of man's inhumanity to man and not to take man's goodness, or his badness, for granted. As we walked in up past the railway line, two young blond German youths were running in the opposite direction past us, crying their eyes out. My Polish grandmother spoke German and translated what they screamed: "We didn't know it was like this". When we first went, there were no birds and it was an austere place but I went again in 1999, with my own teenage children and they were as struck by the place as I had been at their age. That visit may even have played its part in establishing them as well-rounded individuals with a concern for other people. This time, there were birds singing in the trees, which had grown during the previous 30 years. Other than that, Auschwitz (or Oswiencim, as it is known by the Polish people) had not really changed, but there was far more information available around the site, including photographs of how it looked all those years ago. You could look at the demolished gas chamber and at the accompanying old photo. You could look at the stricken faces pictured in the woods, then look at the woods, and wonder at the poor people who had suffered there. I think everyone should go there. It saddens you, but it enlightens you and lets you be thankful for the life you have.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

I think everyone should go there. It saddens you, but it enlightens you and lets you be thankful for the life you have.

Excellent summation. My experience exactly.

 

[Gritt23]

I haven't been, but would certainly go given the opportunity. A guy at work went there a couple of years ago, and he was deeply affected by it. never seen him look so ashen as when he was talking about it. You could hear in his voice, just how powerful the place is.

Must be quite a life changing moment going round there. My wife has turned the idea down flat, so I will probably have to wait a few years and take my son instead.

 

[The Auctioneer]

Emotional

I will always remember a trip to Dachau in Southern Germany in 1980. Total emotional overload. Will stay with me forever.

 

[User removed 4]

I first went when I was 16 in 1969, and it was a life-changing experience. I think it helped to make me more tolerant of people and to be aware of man's inhumanity to man and not to take man's goodness, or his badness, for granted. As we walked in up past the railway line, two young blond German youths were running in the opposite direction past us, crying their eyes out. My Polish grandmother spoke German and translated what they screamed: "We didn't know it was like this". When we first went, there were no birds and it was an austere place but I went again in 1999, with my own teenage children and they were as struck by the place as I had been at their age. That visit may even have played its part in establishing them as well-rounded individuals with a concern for other people. This time, there were birds singing in the trees, which had grown during the previous 30 years. Other than that, Auschwitz (or Oswiencim, as it is known by the Polish people) had not really changed, but there was far more information available around the site, including photographs of how it looked all those years ago. You could look at the demolished gas chamber and at the accompanying old photo. You could look at the stricken faces pictured in the woods, then look at the woods, and wonder at the poor people who had suffered there. I think everyone should go there. It saddens you, but it enlightens you and lets you be thankful for the life you have.

I'm also intrigued by what you were doing behind the Iron Curtain in 1969, I didnt think that trips were encouuraged by the eastern bloc countries ?

 

[Racek]

Agree with you Hovagirl. There was so much to take in I can not get my head around it all.
Really glad I went but I don't think I would like to go back again now Ive done it.

 

[ATFC Seagull]

Went to Sachsenhausen near Berlin this week - not strictly a "death camp" (just the one gas chamber and only a few cremation ovens), but still 30k died there. Found it incredibly moving and it brought home the actual reality that this happened. Can only imagine what Auschwitz is like.

 

[User removed 4]

To be honest I think Belsen was far more eerie than auschwitz, maybe because I went to auschwitz in the summer and belsen in winter where it was very bleak.

 

[Foolg]

Went last October while on a 4 day break in Krakow, and was a surreal experience. Still remember it all in great detail, and probably always will, ad some of the displays/exhibitions really helped you to understand the true scale of the place. Thought Birkenhau was well worth the short bus trip as well.

Somewhere I think everyone should try and visit, obviously not a pleasant experience, but one that's well worth the effort of going. Oh, and Krakow's a cracking city to stay while you're out there of course.

 

[Racek]

(just the one gas chamber and only a few cremation ovens)

Still bad enough. Was the gas chamber still all there?
Auschwitz only has one left too.

 

[ATFC Seagull]

Still bad enough. Was the gas chamber still all there?
Auschwitz only has one left too.

No, there's actually very little remaining due to politics. Some of the barracks have survived, others reconstructed, the cremation ovens are there, the walls and watchtowers and Commandant's house are still there as well, as well as the "shooting trench" for executions. It's enough to hit you very hard. A lot of the place was destroyed by the East Germans (partly because it was used between '45-50 by their good friends the USSR), and because they wanted to turn it into a memorial which diverted attention away from the fact that they weren't running the most non-opressive regime themselves.

By the way, I misread the 30k figure - it's actually between 100-200k.

 

[Not Andy Naylor]

Not much to add to what HovaGirl writes. Anyone should go if they have the chance. None of the Euro 2012 venues is close by, but if anyone is planning to stay on in Poland, head for Krakow, which is not too far from Oswiecim/Brzezinka (Auschwitz/Birkenau) - there are organised trips.

The Kazimierz area of Krakow was the Jewish quarter of the city shown being cleared in the movie Schindler's List, and there's a museum in one of the former synagogues. Just as it's the human details such as the rooms full of suitcases and human hair that get to you in Auschwitz, in the synagogue museum it's the portraits of the Jewish people of the area, with their life stories underneath, all ending "died 1943" - no further explanation necessary ....

 

[Twinkle Toes]

Thank you for that thoughtful post HG, & indeed all of you who have contributed to this thread so far. It's much appreciated.

I haven't been to Auschwitz myself, but for many years I have felt compelled to go there & pay my respects to those who suffered & died through such terrible inhumanity.

I have no idea how such an experience will impact upon me (other than significantly) - or where I will want to be or go after the event. In the end though, at least I'll be able to walk away from the place & continue living my life...

 

[HovaGirl]

I'm also intrigued by what you were doing behind the Iron Curtain in 1969, I didnt think that trips were encouuraged by the eastern bloc countries ?

My father was Polish and this was the first time he had been back in 30 years since the war, and the first time he had seen his brother and sister since then. It took two years to plan, because if we'd stayed in his brother's two-bed flat (where great-granny was also living in her own room), the authorities would have said: "Oh, you can accommodate five more people, can you? Right, we have some lodgers for you." Instead, we had to wait till their friends went away on official business somewhere, and we had their flat.

 

[Racek]

How do some people denied this happened?