OT......Auswitz Birkenau Tour.......

[Bakesy]

OT......Auschwitz Birkenau Tour.......

Done the tour of Auschwitz yesterday and i must admit i never realised the place was that big.
It certainly makes you stand back and take stock.It must have been a truly horrific place to be .
Walking through the Gas Chamber was very sobering.
Anyone else from NSC done the tour?

 

[Man of Harveys]

No, but I would like to. I actually think that visiting it should be compulsory for all EU students.

It's obviously very, very far from the most important aspect of the place but I do think that most people probably don't realise that most of the costs of the running the museum and the exhibits there are met by the German government.

 

[CHAPPERS]

Yep, very interesting and certainly very chilling.

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

It's obviously very, very far from the most important aspect of the place but I do think that most people probably don't realise that most of the costs of the running the museum and the exhibits there are met by the German government.

Quite right too. It is only 50-odd years ago, and the valuables stolen from the poor unfortunates went somewhere.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

I went to one in Alsace a long time ago. Very moving and very chilling. I remember feeling quite spooked by the gas chamber and seeing photos of dismembered bodies.


The funny bit was a German couple got locked out as they were 10 minutes late. They were banging on the door, demanding to be let in.

 

[Commander]

I went to one in Alsace a long time ago. Very moving and very chilling. I remember feeling quite spooked by the gas chamber and seeing photos of dismembered bodies.


The funny bit was a German couple got locked out as they were 10 minutes late. They were banging on the door, demanding to be let in.

The irony

 

[Man of Harveys]

Quite right too. It is only 50-odd years ago, and the valuables stolen from the poor unfortunates went somewhere.

Yes, to Switzerland, a lot of it. I really don't think a simplistic finger-wagging "yes, they were very naughty, weren't they" approach is really the point with this. Besides, I'm pretty sure they weren't gassing people in 1956.

 

[Charles 'Charley' Charles]

Yes hate to say it but done it. Had relatives there who didn't make it out. I never knew them obviously, but know of them.

 

[chip]

The two main camps are quite astonishing. I remember that the when I went around the smaller camp, after the piles of hair, shoes, suitcases, scrawling in the cell where they first experimented with Zyclon-B, etc., it was quite a relief to see that the gallows had been used to hang the camp commanber in 1947.

 

[bhaexpress]

Maybe a few BMs should pay it a visit too.

 

[Man of Harveys]

Yes hate to say it but done it. Had relatives there who didn't make it out. I never knew them obviously, but know of them.

That's awful. If you can bear it - and it's a grim, tough, emotional watch - the harrowing Steven Fry Who Do You Think You Are? illustrated some of the truth of what happened to ordinary innocent people and their families, I would say, better than any film has.

 

[aftershavedave]

That's awful. If you can bear it - and it's a grim, tough, emotional watch - the harrowing Steven Fry Who Do You Think You Are? illustrated some of the truth of what happened to ordinary innocent people and their families, I would say, better than any film has.

an excellent programme spoilt only by the presence of...............that smug arse stephen fry." oh my poor ancestors if only they could have seen me at eton how proud they would be"

 

[Cadiz Seagull]

Yes I was there a few years ago. Like most people I was struck by the size of Birkenau; it's HUGE - the size of a small town.

And I was in the gas chamber in Auschwitz with a lot of tourists when suddenly they all left at once. So I was on my own. Completely alone. Except for thousands of ghosts. And I don't believe in ghosts.

I'll never forget it. Everybody should go once.

 

[Charles 'Charley' Charles]

That's awful. If you can bear it - and it's a grim, tough, emotional watch - the harrowing Steven Fry Who Do You Think You Are? illustrated some of the truth of what happened to ordinary innocent people and their families, I would say, better than any film has.

Will look out for that, is it on at the moment? Or am I looking repeats? Will record it, not sure when I will watch it though, as you say not the nicest thing to watch.

A few friends of mine went to Krakow for a stag weekend a few weeks ago, they said they wanted to go, I did try to warn them if they went to go on the last day otherwise it would put a real cloud over the weekend, they didn't listen Went the first day and and then couldn't really face going out. Think people should be prepared for it and what to expect. It's not a tourist attraction, it's real history

 

[bhanutz]

I did it last year - a very humbling experience, one I shall never forget!. seeing the kids and babies clothes that they discovered brought a lump to my throat!

 

[bhafc99]

Yes, been there. Couldn't face a tour, three of us made our way there on the train and that felt ever so slightly less tacky than being disgorged from one of the coach parties.

Birkenau was much more affecting than Auschwitz. The sheer size and emptiness...

Have also been to Majdanek, which was the second biggest in Europe after Auschwitz/Birkenau, but hardly gets any visitors. The day I went there were only two or three other people, and it was VERY bleak and harrowing. http://www.majdanek.pl/en/

And Bergen/Belsen, of which there's not much left. Though the nearby SS buildings are now part of a UK army base, and it felt very wierd to be walking round NAAFI shops, cafeterias etc bearing in mind what they used to be.

 

[B.M.F]

Have done the trip although wish I had done it on my own instead of with a guided tour. I spent most of the tour walking off and looking at things I wanted to see which was much better as you could take your time. We went just before halloween which made it extra harrowing as the Poles celebrate it as a major event for remembering their dead. The good thing about the Poles is that by law, all children have to go to Auschwitz to experience it.

 

[Gully]

I have just finished reading a book called "If this is a man" by a man called Primo Levi, on the recommendation of someone on NSC I might add. It is about his experience as an Italian Jew in Auschwitz, it is a truly moving and graphic portrayal of what life was like in the camp and the way that people behaved just to survive until the next day. I would recommend the book to anyone who has an interest in history, particularly one of the darkest times in the recent past, it certainly moved me.

I had previously read a couple of books by Levi, the Periodic Table, the Wrench and if not now, when? I can't think of any writer, either alive or dead, whose literature has made such an impact on how I view history and the horrendous way that one human can behave towards another. I don't know if it would make any difference, but I would love to force every small minded bigot who believes that the Holocaust was misleading propaganda to visit Auschwitz and read books like those by Levi, then go away and think long and hard about their opinions.

 

[Beach Hut]

On my to visit list will get there one day.

The recent series on BBC was very sad but also informative concerning this.

 

[Bakesy]

What i found most distressing was the piles of shoes, many from babies and young children.As a parent, the thought of losing a child in that way, well, it brings a lump to your throat.