Auschwitz

[Dog]

I am going to Poland next month for a week and I have 2 days booked up at Auschwitz, has anyone been before, what can I expect, and is there much to do there?

 

Also not sure about where to stay locally, and decent B&B's close?

 

My business friend is there now, it's his fifth time to the camp, I guess it must be interesting.

 

Tips please.

[Thorpe-le-Saint]

I am going to Poland next month for a week and I have 2 days booked up at Auschwitz, has anyone been before, what can I expect, and is there much to do there?

 

Also not sure about where to stay locally, and decent B&B's close?

 

My business friend is there now, it's his fifth time to the camp, I guess it must be interesting.

 

Tips please.

 

 

I'm afraid I can't help you with accomodation...

 

It is certainly worth taking the time to go there, but you can't rush it, it will take a whole day as it's split into two sites. 'Auschwitz' - where the museum is etc and 'Birkenau' - the actual death camp. The museum is harrowing and the camp is 'weird', it's true what the say; the place is silent. The sheer size of the place is also quite unbelievable and even when I was there for the whole day, I didn't get a chance to walk around the whole camp.

 

You will (well, I was anyway) be allowed into the gas chambers and see things such as the 'fireing squad' wall so you need to have a strong stomach.

 

I'll be honest, when I left the camp it hadn't really sunk it what I had just seen, the place beggers belief!

[Smirking_Saint]

Don't take a shower whilst your there

[Dog]

I'm afraid I can't help you with accomodation...

 

It is certainly worth taking the time to go there, but you can't rush it, it will take a whole day as it's split into two sites. 'Auschwitz' - where the museum is etc and 'Birkenau' - the actual death camp. The museum is harrowing and the camp is 'weird', it's true what the say; the place is silent. The sheer size of the place is also quite unbelievable and even when I was there for the whole day, I didn't get a chance to walk around the whole camp.

 

You will (well, I was anyway) be allowed into the gas chambers and see things such as the 'fireing squad' wall so you need to have a strong stomach.

 

I'll be honest, when I left the camp it hadn't really sunk it what I had just seen, the place beggers belief!

 

What do you mean, are there holes in the wall from the bullets? Any blood?

[Master Bates]

Safe to say that when my nan went there back in the 1940's she didn't like it.

[Thorpe-le-Saint]

What do you mean, are there holes in the wall from the bullets? Any blood?

 

Yes to the bullet holes, no to the blood. The prisoner 'toilets', huts and the gas chambers obviously don't smell anymore, but you certainly get a strong impression of what it would have been like.

 

The museum probably has some of the more shocking artefacts. I went in 2004 but they've probably changed a lot of it by now.

 

It's the little things you start to notice: The odd sign here and there with a skull and crossbones on it, when you go up into the 'Auschwitz gatehouse' the grafitti on the walls from the SS guards...

[Dog]

Safe to say that when my nan went there back in the 1940's she didn't like it.

 

Didn't know it was built then tbf.

[Sour Mash]

Stay in Krakow (great place for a few beers). Only a 1 hour drive. Can be worth booking an official tour while in Krakow, they will drive you there and back and a decent tour guide will give you a really good understanding of the camps

[Dimond Geezer]

I am going to Poland next month for a week and I have 2 days booked up at Auschwitz, has anyone been before, what can I expect, and is there much to do there?

 

Also not sure about where to stay locally, and decent B&B's close?

 

My business friend is there now, it's his fifth time to the camp, I guess it must be interesting.

 

Tips please.

 

 

I don't there will be rollercoasters, roundabouts or burger vans there.

 

I've never been, but I imagine it would be extremely interesting and probably quite disturbing, and be the perfect opportunity to contemplate mans inhumanity to man, and to reflect on just how lucky we are as individuals.

[washsaint]

It is an incredibly emotional, draining place......don't count on wanting to do anything else for the rest of the day after being there.

 

Immensely upsetting place and until you have been to the Birkenau part of the camp (some way away from Auschwitz) you cannot contemplate the sheer size and scale of the camp.

 

The camp at Auschwitz is most upsetting.....I lost it when looking at a cabinet full of clothing and shoes from people sent to the gas chambers....there were a little pair of red shoes and the girl who owned them could not have been more than 5 years old looking at the shoes. memory that will stay with me until the day that I die.

 

Not a place I would choose to go back to - the sheer inhumanity of the place is quite incredible. There is also a 'punishment block' that has to be seen to be believed. There is a brick chimney with a tiny entrance: the Krauts used to make 8+ people stand in the chimney for days on end and many suffocated.

 

Incredible place to visit but be prepared to be very upset after visiting.

 

Would definitely stay in Cracow.....it's an hours bus journey from the bus station (I think that's right.,.it's been a long time since I was there)

[INFLUENCED.COM]

Mate of mine went there and said it was a strange experience and didn't expect to feel as emotional as he did afterward.

 

Last year read the Zundel/Harwood book 'Did 6 million really die' so many alleged facts and figures presented within it that it kind of went against everything learned, 'interesting' read if you are objective.

[Doctoroncall]

Went years ago with a group of lads as part of a footy tour in the winter (added to the solemn eeriness to the place) and stayed in Krakow. Take some tissues - an incredible place, hardly a dry eye in the group.

[Whitey Grandad]

My uncle was in the RAF regiment and saw Belsen and others at the end of the war. After that, he never wanted to have any children.

[Dog]

Just had a look on youtube, it's a pretty big place. Why dont they develop it into housing association or flats, surely some of those buildings can be demolished or better still, tidied up and sold on.

[miserableoldgit]

I may be wrong but I don`t think that you are taking this very seriously.

[View From The Top]

I may be wrong but I don`t think that you are taking this very seriously.

 

TMS "humour" I believe.

[Dog]

I may be wrong but I don`t think that you are taking this very seriously.

 

Who are you to judge??

 

You are so wrong.

[miserableoldgit]

Who are you to judge??

 

You are so wrong.

I did say that I may be.

[saint-luco]

Who are you to judge??

 

You are so wrong.

agree or disagree with dogs humour his quotres are pure gold, well worth a fiver

[miserableoldgit]

Just had a look on youtube, it's a pretty big place. Why dont they develop it into housing association or flats, surely some of those buildings can be demolished or better still, tidied up and sold on.

I was judging on this post among others. Hardly shows a serious attitude, but equally, my original post was done "tongue in cheek". Is there a "tongue in cheek" thingy??

[Dog]

[benjii]

Stay in Krakow (great place for a few beers). Only a 1 hour drive. Can be worth booking an official tour while in Krakow, they will drive you there and back and a decent tour guide will give you a really good understanding of the camps

 

This.

[hamster]

My paternal granddad was from Krakow. I plan to go at some point in the next few years.

 

I understand that the saltmines anre a sight to behold also. If you're going for a serious holiday and not just a 'weekender' could you come back and tell us how it goes please? seriously

 

btw MOG, tongue in cheek I think is a simple 'tic' or tongue firmly in cheek 'tfic'. hth.

[mcjwills]

I am going to Poland next month for a week and I have 2 days booked up at Auschwitz, has anyone been before, what can I expect, and is there much to do there?

 

Also not sure about where to stay locally, and decent B&B's close?

 

My business friend is there now, it's his fifth time to the camp, I guess it must be interesting.

 

Tips please.

 

Possibly the most harrowing place I have ever been in the world, when you walk through the gas chamber at Auschwitz it is really eerie, through to the oven when the bodies were shovelled into the furnace. When I was stood in there I was very reflective on how Man could perpetrate such a crime against a fellow man.

 

As said by others this was not the main killing camp this was the camp where mainly the political prisoners were, The camp at Birkenau was where the killing really went on, and you can stand on the platform where the trains arrive and the Prisoners were sorted for work or immediate execution. I walked around the camp and looked in the barracks where they were held. Never had time to visit the gas chambers at Birkenau, and my associates went to see them on the next day when I was ill, they were shocked once again.

 

Do I regret going, no never, I think it is one of those places however bad it is you must go and see, Do I recommend it Yes every time I know somebody that is in the area.

 

I was staying in Katowice, not too far about an hour from Auschwitz, and they have all the classic Polish restaurants in the area McDonaldski, Pizza Hutski and Kentucky Fried Chickenski.

 

Go to Auschwitz but be prepared to be really shocked by what you see and how you will feel.

.

[Hamilton Saint]

Read Night by Elie Wiesel. He was taken to Auschwitz as a young boy with his family. He was the only one to survive.

[CB Saint]

Do I regret going, no never, I think it is one of those places however bad it is you must go and see, Do I recommend it Yes every time I know somebody that is in the area.

.

 

I know what you mean.

 

There is a place in France called Orador. It was a French village where the SS massacred the entire population (shot the men and locked the women and children in the church before torching it) for reprisals. The French have not touched it since the day the Germans left, preserving it as a memorial. You walk through the village as it was left in the 1940's before coming to the cemetary. I went about twenty years ago and can still remember it to this day. Harrowing.

[.comsaint]

My uncle was in the RAF regiment and saw Belsen and others at the end of the war. After that, he never wanted to have any children.

 

I spent the whole day in Belsen some years ago whilst my ship was visiting Hamburg for a few days. Absolutely fascinating day out - incredible. You really do get a strong feeling of the death & suffering that went on there. Made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up & sent shivers down my spine. Always wanted to go to Austwitz & hope to sometime next year.

[hamster]

For those that have already visited, did you sense that those that perished were still present in some form or was it just your own knowledge of events that made it so eerie? serious question, i am interested to know.

[Thorpe-le-Saint]

For those that have already visited, did you sense that those that perished were still present in some form or was it just your own knowledge of events that made it so eerie? serious question, i am interested to know.

 

From my point of view, it was more the knowledge of what happened that made it eerie - knowing that humanity could and did stoop to it's lowest ebb was a horrible feeling.

[.comsaint]

From my point of view, it was more the knowledge of what happened that made it eerie - knowing that humanity could and did stoop to it's lowest ebb was a horrible feeling.

 

+1

 

The entrance to Belsen is similar to a museum in that there are many newspaper cuttings from the day of the camp, photographs, personal belongings, etc. As you walk outside into where the camp/huts were & the long footpath through - you pass many 'mounds' which have a large stone plaque inlaid on each which reads 'Here lay the bodies of 2,000 prisoners' or 'here lay the bodies of 3,000 prisoners' (or words to that effect). At the very far end of the camp is a large wall with many inscriptions from countries/leaders of the world at the time WWII ended. There is one single marble oberlisk which stands alone - from the state of Israel with a star of David on it & many languages. In English it reads: This must never be allowed to happen again.

 

And it is true what they say about such places. I didn't see or hear one bird fly or sing!

[Saint_Jonny]

Im going for a trek round europe in the summer and we're due to go to auschwitz, I just know its going to be a tough day but one ive always wanted to experience.

[Whitey Grandad]

I know what you mean.

 

There is a place in France called Orador. It was a French village where the SS massacred the entire population (shot the men and locked the women and children in the church before torching it) for reprisals. The French have not touched it since the day the Germans left, preserving it as a memorial. You walk through the village as it was left in the 1940's before coming to the cemetary. I went about twenty years ago and can still remember it to this day. Harrowing.

 

Oradour-sur-Glane, just north of Limosges. It was mentioned at the beginning of 'World at War' http://www.oradour.info/

[OldNick]

My grandfather was one of the first to liberate Belsen, sadly he died when I was about 6 .My mother says he would never talk about what he saw.

[dune]

Been to the German underground hospital in Jersey.

[aintforever]

I think everyone should visit Auschwitz, it's important not to forget how nasty German people are.

[miserableoldgit]

This was a superb series. It dwells many on the way that the camp was organised and run. The fact that it seemed so "normal" in the way it was run is chilling in itself.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Auschwitz-Nazis-Final-Solution-DVD/dp/B0006FNXNA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1269606138&sr=1-1

[Dog]

This was a superb series. It dwells many on the way that the camp was organised and run. The fact that it seemed so "normal" in the way it was run is chilling in itself.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Auschwitz-Nazis-Final-Solution-DVD/dp/B0006FNXNA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1269606138&sr=1-1

 

My misses bought me that book for my birthday, it was good at the start, then it got very deep and confusing. Pictures were good though I must add.

[Whitey Grandad]

I think everyone should visit Auschwitz, it's important not to forget how nasty German people are.

I would ask you to retract that statement. There's good and bad in everyone.

[INFLUENCED.COM]

it's important not to forget how nasty German people are.

 

Despite our government apologising to, what seems every nation in the world, perhaps many consider us, as a race, in similar light ?

[Thorpe-le-Saint]

My misses bought me that book for my birthday, it was good at the start, then it got very deep and confusing. Pictures were good though I must add.

 

A good book to buy from the shop at Auschwitz is "KL Auschwitz seen through the eyes of the SS".

[aintforever]

Despite our government apologising to, what seems every nation in the world, perhaps many consider us, as a race, in similar light ?

 

Was only joking, but to be fair, we've never done anything nearly as bad as what the Germans did.

[Dog]

I like the germans.

[tpbury]

I studied German and had to face up to the same things German kids had to at school - ie lots of exposure to death camp videos, Boell, Gunther Grass and other post 'Stunde Null' stuff. All German adults you meet will have been very explixitly educated as to how their parents/grand parents / great grand parents ficked it all up. They don't need any more education about it - they get it.

 

Just reading the first few posts made me feel sick, not because of what was written, but because of what the writing was about - those horrible places. Yet, all this stuff still goes on (Rwanda, Indonesia, China, Serbia), all this vortex of hatred, coz humans love to kill.

[INFLUENCED.COM]

I like the germans.

 

As do I, my Dog was drowning and a passing German Tourist dived in, pulled him out and resucitated him saving his life, I said "are you a vet ?" he said "vet !, I'm fucin soaked"

[Thorpe-le-Saint]

Was only joking, but to be fair, we've never done anything nearly as bad as what the Germans did.

 

200 years of slavery might rank up along side it?

[Kadeem Hardison]

Is there an irony in someone posting sympathetically about the awful, harrowing things done at Auschwitz, only to refer to the Germans as 'Krauts'?

[dune]

"Work sets you free" - did they get the sign back?

[.comsaint]

"Work sets you free" - did they get the sign back?

 

Yes - they did:

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8423827.stm

[Guest Dark Sotonic Mills]

A good book to buy from the shop at Auschwitz is "KL Auschwitz seen through the eyes of the SS".

 

Slight error, it's "KL Auschwitz seen by the SS" and it's written by Rudolph Hess. I bought it a while ago from Amazon.

[OldNick]

As do I, my Dog was drowning and a passing German Tourist dived in, pulled him out and resucitated him saving his life, I said "are you a vet ?" he said "vet !, I'm fucin soaked"

Lol , but it does sem a tad wrong on this thread