Brighton Breezy
New member
If you do go to Krakow, visit Schindler's factory as well which is now a museum.
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Auschwitz
- Thread starter poidy
- Start date
BRIGHT ON Q
Well-known member
- Jul 5, 2003
- 9,248
Going this year, has anyone visited the Salt mines Nr Krakow?...is it worth a visit?
It is. The workers carved these amazing religious scenes out of the rock and salt, hundreds of feet below the ground. Worth the visit,. In 1990 the lifts they sent you down in were the original workers ones, and they were not for the faint hearted. If they are still the same, I'd bear that in mind.
What a horrible thing to keep to yourself for 40 years. Not something you are ever going to be able to reconcile in your head.
I remember reading up on it all, after the conversation with my friend. Post Traumatic Stress-type problems were apparently common amongst those troops on their return - although of course they hadn't invented the words for it back then. Respect / sympathies to your Dad.
Puppet Master
non sequitur
- Aug 14, 2012
- 4,056
Funnily enough I visited Auschwitz as part of my 30th birthday weekender in Krakow. As others have said, a real bittersweet experience. So harrowing but it kind of makes you glad it's still there kept intact as a reminder what horrible, evil ***** man can be and serves as a stark reminder why we should never allow it to happen again.
Standing in one of the gas chambers was just a surreal, gut wrenching moment.
Standing in one of the gas chambers was just a surreal, gut wrenching moment.
I've visited Dachau (near Munich) and Sachsenhausen (near Berlin) concentration camps and I'd highly recommend seeing one of these places just to get some sort of feeling as to what it must have been like. It really brings out a whole load of emotions as you see the horror of the events which occurred there.
Not a death or concentration camp, the place I found very moving to visit was Lidice near Prague. The Nazi's revenge for the assassination of Heydrich.
http://www.outsideprague.com/lidice/lidice.html
http://www.outsideprague.com/lidice/lidice.html
SeagullSongs
And it's all gone quiet..
I went with [MENTION=23421]JOLovegrove[/MENTION] in July 2010, it's an incredible place for many reasons.
They say the birds don't sing in Auschwitz, they're wrong. They sing away quite happily which I found actually adds to the eeriness of it all.
A few things in particular stay with me:
Seeing the 'Arbeit Macht Frei' sign. It almost looks friendly with its curved shape and neat font, which sent chills down my spine.
The gas chambers themselves were smaller than I expected, there were scratches on the walls and everywhere you placed your feet you know that thousands of people had died on that very spot. A very harrowing experience.
Birkenau was enormous. The sheer number of people who were suffering in there must have been huge.
Where they have the possessions all piled up probably gives you the biggest sense of scale though, the mountains of hair, piles of glasses and hundreds of suitcases - each with their own cheerful luggage tags and writing depicting the holiday destinations the people had before visited.
Here's my favourite picture that I took at Birkenau.
They say the birds don't sing in Auschwitz, they're wrong. They sing away quite happily which I found actually adds to the eeriness of it all.
A few things in particular stay with me:
Seeing the 'Arbeit Macht Frei' sign. It almost looks friendly with its curved shape and neat font, which sent chills down my spine.
The gas chambers themselves were smaller than I expected, there were scratches on the walls and everywhere you placed your feet you know that thousands of people had died on that very spot. A very harrowing experience.
Birkenau was enormous. The sheer number of people who were suffering in there must have been huge.
Where they have the possessions all piled up probably gives you the biggest sense of scale though, the mountains of hair, piles of glasses and hundreds of suitcases - each with their own cheerful luggage tags and writing depicting the holiday destinations the people had before visited.
Here's my favourite picture that I took at Birkenau.
Cadiz Seagull
Grey bearded old man
Definitely. Amazing place
Weststander
Well-known member
I remember that story - Hitler ordered that all the people of an entire village/town be murdered, and then the place itself bulldozed as if it had never existed.
All dreamt up in that warped and evil mind, views he had held by decades, following a trait in many central/eastern Europeans then to blame Jews (and others) for any perceived setback or injustice to his own 'race' or adopted nation.
I feel some pride towards the stance of Britain, and others, at that time against Fascism and the mass murderers hiding behind that particular banner.
daveinprague
New member
In my street is the resistance 'safe' house where the Moravec family lived...
'Čurda betrayed several safe houses provided by the Jindra group, including that of the Moravec family in Žižkov. At 05:00 on 17 June, the Moravec flat was raided. The family was made to stand in the hallway while the Gestapo searched their flat. Mrs. Maria Moravec, after being allowed to go to the toilet, bit into a cyanide capsule and thereby killed herself. Mr. Moravec, unaware of his family's involvement with the resistance, was taken to the Peček Palác together with his 17-year-old son Ata, who though interrogated with torture throughout the day, refused to talk. The youth was finally stupefied with brandy, shown his mother's severed head in a fish tank and warned that if he did not reveal the information they were looking for, his father would be next.[35] That finally caused him to crack and tell the Gestapo what they wanted to know.'
They also destroyed the village of Lezaky
Sweeney Todd
New member
I went to Krakow and Auschwitz-Birkenau in 2006. As I approached Birkenau and its iconic watchtower, I noticed a modern housing estate on the right and a family having a picnic in the garden of one of the houses (it was a warm May afternoon). The incongruity of a normal family scene juxtaposing one of the most horrific places on earth was striking. (I can recommend Laurence Rees's BBC book, Auschwitz, and the accompanying series, narrated by Rees, which is available on DVD.)
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danielson81
Active member
Went in November 2013, whilst staying in Krakow. Did a small private tour run by an ex-pat.
Went to Birkenau (Auschwitz II) first, just the 7 of us there at 10am on a Sunday morning, quite weird and moving. Then went on to Auschwitz I afterwards, which was quite busy and more like a museum.
Went to the Salt Mines in the afternoon, which was well worth the visit and quite a refreshing change from where we had just been.
We could of stayed hours at Auschwitz but I felt I saw enough and could quite easily revisit in the future.
A small private tour, although more expensive allowed us more time at each site as transport was provided, and we didn't have to wait for buses between sites.
Krakow itself is amazing, there is the Oscar Schindler Factory and the old Jewish Ghetto which features a square (Zgody Sq) full of metal chairs memorializing the victims of the Krakow ghetto.
On a lighter note, amazing Vodka bar in Krakow, ten shots for £7!
Went to Birkenau (Auschwitz II) first, just the 7 of us there at 10am on a Sunday morning, quite weird and moving. Then went on to Auschwitz I afterwards, which was quite busy and more like a museum.
Went to the Salt Mines in the afternoon, which was well worth the visit and quite a refreshing change from where we had just been.
We could of stayed hours at Auschwitz but I felt I saw enough and could quite easily revisit in the future.
A small private tour, although more expensive allowed us more time at each site as transport was provided, and we didn't have to wait for buses between sites.
Krakow itself is amazing, there is the Oscar Schindler Factory and the old Jewish Ghetto which features a square (Zgody Sq) full of metal chairs memorializing the victims of the Krakow ghetto.
On a lighter note, amazing Vodka bar in Krakow, ten shots for £7!
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Seagull over Canaryland
Well-known member
Interesting post. It is one thing to visit such places as a tourist and pay one's respects.
But I cannot comprehend how people can live next door - and live a normal life, knowing that such horrors were perpetrated and on such a grotesque scale, just over their garden fence. I suppose it is one way of demonstrating that life will go on and good will always prevail over evil.
As others have said - Birkenau is far more distressing. I went in 1991, and it was just me and my mate wandering around this vast site. The huts with their cramped bed areas were quite something when you worked out how many people were in them. It's disappointing to hear that access has been reduced a little, but I still think it would be worth going to both. But go to Auschwitz first, because you take the history and what you have just seen onto Birkenau with you, and you're able to put it into perspective when you see the size of it.
Rather bizarrely, I tripped on some concrete sticking out of the ground at Birkenau, and cut my leg on some rusty metal (they weren't at all H&S conscious then). I still have the scar - which feels a bit pathetic - to have a slight scar from a place where so much worse took place.
A year before, we went to the River Kwai, before that too was commercialised. That had a small museum, and I was totally shocked by this one - because whilst we all have the German atrocities drummed into us, I didn't, at that time, really know much about how cruel the Japanese were as well.
Rather bizarrely, I tripped on some concrete sticking out of the ground at Birkenau, and cut my leg on some rusty metal (they weren't at all H&S conscious then). I still have the scar - which feels a bit pathetic - to have a slight scar from a place where so much worse took place.
A year before, we went to the River Kwai, before that too was commercialised. That had a small museum, and I was totally shocked by this one - because whilst we all have the German atrocities drummed into us, I didn't, at that time, really know much about how cruel the Japanese were as well.
Sweeney Todd
New member
Yes, in the Kazimierz district of Krakow, which is bohemian and arty and different from the rest of the city...
Just outside Krakow is the disused quarry that was used as the site for the concentration camp in Schindler's List.
Grombleton
Surrounded by <div>s
- Dec 31, 2011
- 7,356
I often attract some peculiar facial expressions when i mention that i'd like to visit Auschwitz, but it's genuinely one place i would like to see before i die. Mrs Grombleton has German heritage (she is 1/4 German) and her grandfather (who is English but married a German) is a historian (he's written a book about the residents of Horsham & the surrounding area and their participation in WW1...he's working on a follow up for WW2 currently) and i've heard many a story of his research, his visits to such places and it's incredibly compelling.
I'm beginning to think that a trip out there for my 30th may not be such a bad idea - combine it with a visit to Krakow (which i've also heard is a cracking city) and possibly covering parts of Germany (which we've both wanted to visit for some time).
I can't imagine what i will feel like when i'm there, but i'm hoping that it will give me some sense of perspective - reading books and watching programmes can only tell part of the story.
I'm beginning to think that a trip out there for my 30th may not be such a bad idea - combine it with a visit to Krakow (which i've also heard is a cracking city) and possibly covering parts of Germany (which we've both wanted to visit for some time).
I can't imagine what i will feel like when i'm there, but i'm hoping that it will give me some sense of perspective - reading books and watching programmes can only tell part of the story.
I know we have discussed whether to go before to the camps on here Hansy but the one thing I remember my brother saying when we went to Krakow was it would seem quite wrong to be in that area and not go and pay your respects to the people who died there. My wife completely broke down at one point when we went there and practically the whole visit was conducted in silence. Not out of respect as such but just because the enormity of it all just came over in those moments like it could never just by reading books or watching documentaries on the holocaust. I am so glad we went.
Strangely enough we were laughing when in the visitors area at Auchwitz when a little old Jewish boy kept moaning about the toilet attendant taking all his zloty's off him because he had made 3 trips to the WC because of his weak bladder. " they're robbing me" he shouted out to us in his distinct accent.