Auschwitz

[ClaretAndJew]

On my way back to Krakow after visiting this place. Amazing and sombre, macabre and moving.

A must see for anyone.

[IndigoLake]

I'm yet to visit. Did you go as part of a group tour in the end? Think I remember you asking about it. What's the temperature like there?

[HatfieldClaret]

My daughter went there last year, the government paid for 2 children from every school to go for the day. She then had to speak to the school to describe her experience and to ensure that it's not left on the shelves of history. She was very moved and still finds the whole experience very surreal.

[ClaretAndJew]

It's about -2 or so but no wind or rain so surprisingly not as cold as you'd expect. I booked with a company based in Krakow, 99PLN for the tour to both Auswitchz and Berkenau. Coach trip there and back. It's about 20 quid or so. A lot cheaper than what British tour operators are charging and cheaper than the hotel would have charged. We had a very informative guide so maybe I got lucky but it really is worth doing.

Thompson for example tried to charge £60 for the tour.

[Pstotto]

I live in Canterbury. Half the town was taken away by the Nazis, so that presence is there beneath the veneer, from the medieval to 50's stand-in architecture. I can't imagine why anyone would willingly go to Auschwitz, you may not know how such a thing might affect you. Not for those who are sensitive, I would have thought.

[BennyD]

It's a pity the barrier is where it is in the picture. It's hiding the letter B which the Jewish blacksmith put in upside down as a f*ck you to the nazis. I've been to a couple of concentration camps but not Auschwitz, as yet.

[cricketfieldclarets]

ironic username if ever there was one for a post.

[ClaretAndJew]

I think irony would be buying a souvenir.

[1968claret]

It's about -2 or so but no wind or rain so surprisingly not as cold as you'd expect. I booked with a company based in Krakow, 99PLN for the tour to both Auswitchz and Berkenau. Coach trip there and back. It's about 20 quid or so. A lot cheaper than what British tour operators are charging and cheaper than the hotel would have charged. We had a very informative guide so maybe I got lucky but it really is worth doing.

Thompson for example tried to charge £60 for the tour.

Somewhere that I will visit at some stage really just as a reminder as to what can happen, when evil men are not stopped.
Find it a little distasteful though that companies are using this to exploit people and make profit. Fair enough cover your costs but surely don't exploit this for greed

[ClaretAndJew]

A huge collection of shoes from people brought into an subsequently killed at the camp.

[Dyched]

A huge collection of shoes from people brought into an subsequently killed at the camp.

That's an haunting image

[Lancasterclaret]

Pstotto - that is exactly why you have to go to places like this.

You remember, and then you don't forget ever what human beings are capable of.

[JohnMac]

I was stationed at Bergen-Hohne for several years and the Belsen Camp location is nearby.
It was completely destroyed after the war but there are many mass graves with simple memorials along the lines of 'Here lies buried 5000 Jews' or similar words.
The railway sidings where so many thousands of people were unloaded to be marched to the camp were 2 minutes from my house.
A horrible place, conscripts in the West German Army were taken there back in the 70/80's as part of their training.

[bobinho]

I too was stationed there John. I visited the concentration camp a couple of times.

I cannot ever remember feeling the way I did as we walked through the grounds, seeing the burial mounds of thousands of Jewish prisoners.

We need these places to continually open their doors to us all. We need to see what we have done, if only in the hope we can learn from it.

[Sidney1st]

Possibly got a trip to Krakow planned for next year and this is on my list of things to do.

[Saxoman]

Wanted to travel over land from France to go, but may not get the chance now.

[Vintage Claret]

We visited Auschwitz from Krakow in 2014.

We just got one of the regular public minibuses from the main bus station at a cost of about £2-3 return each-journey takes about an hour or so and the bus stops right outside the main entrance to the camp (Auschwitz 1).

Depending which month you go, if you arrive between certain times (think it's 10am -2 or3pm) you have to take a guided tour which costs about £8 pp. We arrived about 9.45 so had the choice and we chose to do a self guided tour with the aid of the official guide book (about £1).

There are explanatory signs and photographs at the main areas in Polish and English and inside the buildings.

Auschwitz 1 is very well preserved and you almost feel like your on an old film set it is that surreal, for me Auschwitz 2 (Birkenhau) was the most chilling although there is a lot more to imagine than to see (there is a free shuttle bus between the camps)

Can't bring myself to go into any details of what you will experience, all I can say is think carefully what you want to get out of your visit if you decide to go because it will stay with you-there are certain things I saw and learned about that day that still haunt me 3 years later and I wouldn't ever go back there.

By the way the current 'Arbeit Mach Frei' 'sign over the gate is a replica, the original was stolen and broken into 3 pieces but recovered and is now kept in storage within the 'museum'

[JarrowClaret]

Never felt the need to visit Bergen Belsen in my many trips to Hohne but I always felt it eerie when I saw the sign and drove past. Different I appreciate but I did visit Colditz Castle once thought that was a worthwhile and also quite a sobering visit for other reasons. The ingenuity the POWs had in there efforts to escape were amazing.

[ecc]

I visited Dachau a long time ago. I hope to be able to go to Auschwitz one day. I don't know whether it's compulsory for all Polish children to go but it should be. And every Holocaust denier spouting their tripe on the Internet should be tracked down and made to go.

[Redbeard]

Lots of Polish children were made to go, in the early forties.

Not sure that any present-day enforcement is, or would be, a great idea.

[evensteadiereddie]

Its on my list but I admit I do have misgivings. As a human, I guess we're obliged to go if possible just to remind ourselves how stupid we are.
Especially these days.

[ClaretPope]

Hoping to go to Krakow in June and will go to Auschwitz.

[ClaretAndJew]

I uploaded some more pics I took for anyone interested

http://m.imgur.com/CYvbKSn,teWCRgL,tPyD ... uE,Z6FNFF7" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Long link but it should work

[Siddo]

It's a harrowing place to visit but if in Krakow you have to go. I didn't sleep properly for a few nights after we went, and I still feel angry at some of the things I saw and learnt.

We paid around a pound return from the bus station but paid for the official tour guide. We were left to our own devices when we returned from Birkenau so we wandered round some of the huts the tour didn't cover.

Eventually I had to leave as I couldn't comprehend what I was seeing and as I said earlier, some of the images still come into my head , 8 years later.

[Tribesmen]

Hard to put into words really i have been to a few of these kind of places around the world but nothing comes close to this place .

Walking into the gas chamber where so many were murdered still gives me the chills .

[ClaretTony]

I've not been but is somewhere I do intend going. Like ecc, I have been to Dachau, and found it very moving.

[LoveCurryPies]

ClaretAndJew, thank you for this thread. Very sad that humans can do this to each other. Rather topical given how split America has now become.

I used to work for the guy who built the Twin Towers. On his office wall, he had charcoal drawings from concentration camps. These were drawn with wood from the fires on anything the artists could find....sacking, cardboard...rarely paper. Within the drawing we're fragments of fabrics and even the artist's fingerprints where they had smudged the drawings.

These were the greatest works of Art I have ever seen. On one level they had the rawness / directness of handprints in cave paintings. The faces were haunted faces, rather like Munch's The Scream. Their message was one for all mankind....never allow this to be repeated. And yet that's exactly what we are witnessing in the USA....the rise of fear and hatred for others.

[HatfieldClaret]

One thing we learn from history, is that we don'y learn.

[LoveCurryPies]

C&J, your photos of the piles of shoes are more moving than the shots of the buildings. Funny how small can say more than large.

I've seen a lot of photos from camps....to me it's the scratched names in walls or stone steps worn down by the thousands of feet that walked them.