Auschwitz

[Pretty pink fairy]

went there last year, hotel receptionist in Krakow sorted it all out for us. Highly recommended but so sad and eerie... was horrible standing in one of the gas chambers

i thought all the others had been destroyed
regards
DR

 

[Grombleton]

It's somewhere i've always longed to visit - my girlfriend's family are german and her grandfather (English, his wife was German) has been there before a few times (researching for a book about people from Horsham who served in the wars). He said much what others have said - it's a very humbling place to go and puts everything in perspective.

It's top of my list of places to visit soon.

 

[Lethargic]

Not been to Aushwitz but been to Dachau and Bergen Belsen and I would thoroughly recommend the trip, it is not an experience you will enjoy as such but I strongly believe it is an experience everyone should share to understand the evils of mankind ( of all nations).
It will open your eyes and hopefully make you a more understanding person (not saying you aren't already) but do not expect an entertaining afternoon.
Having never done a guided tour can't recommend or not.

 

[TSB]

I've been. It's incredibly humbling (as you'd imagine).
Get a local bus or a tour: plenty of independent tour operators on Krakow's main street, leading up to the square.
You must see Birkenau whilst you're there. That's debateably even more ghoulish (and then end of the tour)

 

[Phat Baz 68]

I am going for the humbling reasons as many have mentioned.
Am trying to have a long hard look at my own life at the moment and need to take stock of what is important in life and to realise how lucky I and others I know are.
Thanks for all your comments very helpful ! Baz

 

[Questions]

If its part of a mini break in Krakow then try and go at the end of your stay there. You'll understand why when you get to Aushwitz and Birkenau.

 

[The Modfather]

Best way to get there is by train. Well worth a visit.

 

[Seagull on the wing]

Been to visit Colditz Castle....took me years to get out...

 

[Bald Gull]

Planning on going there next year. Many of my relatives died there. Certainly not something that is likely to be classed as enjoyable but will be fulfilling in many ways I think.

 

[TSB]

Planning on going there next year. Many of my relatives died there. Certainly not something that is likely to be classed as enjoyable but will be fulfilling in many ways I think.

Prepare yourself for the 'hair room' (or don't go in it). It's the most horrific sight I've experienced.

 

[Bald Gull]

Prepare yourself for the 'hair room' (or don't go in it). It's the most horrific site I've experienced.

Thank you for that. Will do.

 

[Blackadder]

When we were in Krakow we booked a trip from one of the many tourist companies near the main square. We went by coach and had a guided tour of Auchwitz 1 and 2.

Auchwitz 1 is pretty much intact. There is not much of 2 left but you get a feel of what it was like. The main gate and the railway line are still there. Well worth a visit.

Krakow is brilliant. Cheap as chips to go out.

 

[The Rivet]

These places are not so much 'Tourist Spots'! They are places you visit with a mind to history, humanity and conscience.

 

[Barham's tash]

Went a few years ago en route back from a skiing holiday in Slovakia. I only mention that as we didn't go on an organised your but just plugged it into our sat nav and set off across country.

It was about minus 15 degrees and blowing snow all the way into the town and really gave me the impression of how bleak and dire a place it was before we set foot in the camp.

We were a party of four and initially we all agreed we would go there on our last day in the country but when we arrived at the camp entrance it really did get to two of our party, one of whom nearly refused to go in.

I personally found it a tremendously life affirming and changing experience.

Some bits you expect to effect you - like the hair room or the arbeit macht frei gate etc - but others that are Seemingly innocuous go on to reveal hideous truths about mans inhumanity to man.

I was left in pieces by a simple courtyard with a bunch of flowers at one end against a wall when I realised through reading the guidebook that over 145,000 people were shot against the wall. Simply mind blowing.

 

[Phat Baz 68]

These places are not so much 'Tourist Spots'! They are places you visit with a mind to history, humanity and conscience.

Actually your quite right there !

 

[Blackadder]

Some bits you expect to effect you - like the hair room or the arbeit macht frei gate etc - but others that are Seemingly innocuous go on to reveal hideous truths about mans inhumanity to man.

I was left in pieces by a simple courtyard with a bunch of flowers at one end against a wall when I realised through reading the guidebook that over 145,000 people were shot against the wall. Simply mind blowing.

Know what you mean. Despite the execution area, punishment block, hair / luggage rooms, I was haunted by a corridor in one of the huts that had a row of pictures, on both sides of the corridor, of prisoners and the short lives they had in Auschwitz One. the guide was giving information on the living accommodation but I was transfixed by those photographs.

 

[Nottseagull]

There was a longer thread on this quite a while back which will give you more insight. Don't have time to search for it myself though.