Have you been to Auschwitz or any of the concentration camps?

[Warpaint]

As the Liberation is the main feature of most news outlets I wondered if anyone had been to any of them? Or do you consider it too dark tourism?

I went to Auschwitz-Birkenau a few years ago. It was very busy, even in March. I was in a group and all had those headphones whilst guided around. After seeing it so much on TV all of my life it was pretty strange to actually be there. The sign on the gate, the fences, the barracks etc. We were whisked around quite promptly however we did take time where the hair and all the belongings are which is quite hard to see. Also I think going in the gas chamber and the guide pointing up to where they put it in was quite freaky.
Then going over to Birkenau and seeing the infamous shot of the railways as you're walking in was quite surreal. Also how small a lot of the carts they came in actually were gives you a sense of the claustrophobia when travelling. I didn't expect it to be so big either, especially as you see all the trenches that were dug. Also seeing the 'living' quarters shows how cramped everyone must have been their whole time there.

I don't think it's somewhere I'd again and I wouldn't visit any more. However I do feel it's one of those you kind of have to see to get a slight scope of it all.

 

[Moonflower]

I can't bring myself to go. I think it is incredibly important to remember, but for me Auschwitz is that step too far.

In Budapest, one of my favourite cities, there is a beautiful holocaust memorial, maintained by locals (not the official Holocaust memorial, sorry I'm not explaining myself very well, it's actually the memorial for the victims of the German occupation). It has notes, biographies, stories about the people, shoes, bags, glasses. I find it really emotional and couldn't bring myself to go last time but I found it very important to read the notes and stories on my previous visits.

I think an actual concentration camp would be too dark for me. But I do appreciate visiting memorials and museums.

 

[qqwertyy]

I’ve been to Sachsenhausen and Auschwitz. It was about ten ish years ago and even then I was horrified at how many people were taking selfies, so I can’t imagine what it’s like now. Also every time I have been to the Berlin Holocaust memorial there are people sat on the stones, climbing, eating etc. I find anything like that so moving but it’s such a shame some people are incapable of being respectful.

 

[Candytuft]

I haven't but some of my relatives have. I wouldn't be able to cope I don't think.
I remember when I was clearing out my mother's home after she died, I found a Baptismal certificate for me. That was confusing because mother was Jewish - pretty much secular and not spoken of outside family.
My uncle explained that it was done because " it could maybe buy a bit of time " my mother lost a lot of family but she wouldn't speak about it.
I was born in 1953 and the holocaust was so near.
It still unsettles me.

 

[Candytuft]

Is Budapest where the monument of shoes is, at the side of the river ? My sister saw it and said it affected her more deeply than the Camps she had visited.
She said they are so overwhelming, the sheer size and scale of the mechanisation of murder was so so massive it just couldn't be realised with two eyes and one mind.
Sometimes it's the small things isn't it ?
I couldn't bear to see a child's shoe.

 

[Moonflower]

Is Budapest where the monument of shoes is, at the side of the river ? My sister saw it and said it affected her more deeply than the Camps she had visited.
Sometimes it's the small things isn't it ?
I couldn't bear to see a child's shoe.

Yes. It's beautiful. So small but so significant as you say. I had to leave in the summer because there were people taking selfies and acting up like you mentioned in Berlin which I found incredibly disrespectful. Especially considering there was a young man (19 or so?) utterly beside himself. I have no pictures of it purely because it feels to me so wrong. I guess it affects us all differently but basic respect and courtesy for others is nothing is it.

 

[cowtastrophe]

I feel quite conflicted by it and I don’t think I could bring myself to go. I went to the killing fields and Tuol Sleng in Cambodia and found it incredibly upsetting. I do think it’s important that people remember but it somehow feels wrong to me that these places of human suffering have become tourist destinations.

 

[Booington]

I’ve never been, not sure I want to either. I can never decide if its disrespectful or ‘good’ that people see it for themselves and are affected by it.

 

[Candytuft]

I feel quite conflicted by it and I don’t think I could bring myself to go. I went to the killing fields and Tuol Sleng in Cambodia and found it incredibly upsetting. I do think it’s important that people remember but it somehow feels wrong to me that these places of human suffering have become tourist destinations.

I know what you mean.
They need to be preserved though as a testament and a reminder.
The silly kids taking selfies ? Well, ignore them. You couldn't knock a bit of respect into some heads at any time since there's been people on this planet.
I know some people go to pay respects to relatives because they know their remains are there and there isn't a grave. It's a massive grave when you look at it, so anyone should go if they want to.
I suppose it depends on what you think is a tourist.

 

[cowtastrophe]

Maybe ‘tourist’ is the wrong word, I don’t know. I wasn’t judging or trying to suggest visits to these places should be banned. I can absolutely see why people visit for a variety of reasons. I’ve got to admit, I wasn’t prepared for how harrowing the killing fields were and there’s a bit of me that regrets going.

 

[Brianbadonde]

I’m going to krakow with my fella at the end of march, we’ve decided to not go to Auschwitz while we are there just because it seems completely disingenuous to us as non Jewish people, I also know I’d loose my tit if I saw anyone taking selfies etc.
I think we can pause for thought on anniversary’s of the horrors that happened there without joining the masses ‘just because’ just our personal take on it

 

[Happy Lady]

I’ve been to Sachsenhausen and Auschwitz. It was about ten ish years ago and even then I was horrified at how many people were taking selfies, so I can’t imagine what it’s like now. Also every time I have been to the Berlin Holocaust memorial there are people sat on the stones, climbing, eating etc. I find anything like that so moving but it’s such a shame some people are incapable of being respectful.

Yes, we've also visited Sachsenhausen. It was a tour from the Brandenburg Gate where we were taken to the train station, then walked to the camp. The idea was for us to understand the experience the POW had. I found it incredible that the residents living in houses along that route had no idea where they went, and the fact nobody came out!

They took us round part of the camp explaining what had happened, and I was dumb by the cruelty, which I won't go into today.

I'm also currently reading a true story called Lovers In Auschwitz. A very moving account from some of the survivors, and well put together.

 

[bottlewrapper]

I've visited Dachau and Belsen.

I remember we took a guided tour through one of the camps, which took us through reproductions of the huts where inmates lived, to show how overcrowded they became as the war progressed and the extermination was ramped up. The tour ended by leading us through the changing room where people were stripped naked, and then we were led into the showers and the guide talked us through the final minutes of the victims' lives. It was sensitively done, and by the end everyone was silent and in tears.

At the other camp, we walked to the back of the camp, to lovely fields which were marked by large humps with stone markers confirming how many tens of thousands of people were in each hump '20,000 Jews lie here', '15,000 Russians lie here'. The humps continued far into the distance.

Both visits remain some of the most profound experiences of my life.

Harrowing, but I'm glad I understand more and didn't shy away from visiting. This was before phones though, although I don't imagine there would be any tolerance for poor behaviour at a camp, in a way that you might get at a memorial statue in a town.

 

[Itchy of Itchington]

I haven't, my husband has,. He found it almost unbearable to be there, he said he doesn't think he's ever cried so much or felt so numb and overwhelmed. He went with a Holocaust education trust with lots of teenagers and said they are all incredibly respectful and that the coach trip to the airport to come back home was almost silent There is an extra poignancy for him as he is Jewish and we know that some distant relatives of his were murdered at Auschwitz and also at Treblinka. I hope you don't mind me sharing some details of them

Those who are murdered were his grandparents 2nd or 3rd cousins but they never met as his (my husband) great grandparents left what is now Poland during the 1890s pogroms. They had lived in a town called Siedlce which had a 40% Jewish population in 1939. During the war Jews from across other parts of Poland along with Siedlce residents were imprisoned in the Ghetto there and then deported to Treblinka. No Jews returned there after the end of the war. Other relatives lived in Kaluszyn which also housed a ghetto where many Jews were murdered and those left alive sent to Treblinka.
Some of his great great uncles had gone to France in around 1910 to escape persecution in Poland. Once the Nazis entered Paris their families were rounded up and went to Drancy first and then to Auschwitz. Their ashes are probably in the grounds and paths you walk along with so many others.

We've talked a lot about whether people should visit these places, and the overwhelming feeling is Yes. Not just Jews. Roma, gay and lesbians and disabled people were also murdered by the Nazi regime and we should all remember where hateful rhetoric and scapegoating led. It shouldn't be left to those persecuted communities to be the memory keepers. People taking selfies etc is annoying but most people are respectful. Perhaps those who don't treat these places with respect are those who need them the most
.
The Holocaust galleries at IWM London are deeply moving and also overwhelming. I ended up crying next to the display of the hairbrushes and combs that had been stored by the Nazis and had to go and get some fresh air. I went before I met my husband. The added knowledge now that my children would have ended up in a camp along with their father brings a new additional pain to seeing these things.

 

[Moonflower]

I haven't, my husband has,. He found it almost unbearable to be there, he said he doesn't think he's ever cried so much or felt so numb and overwhelmed. He went with a Holocaust education trust with lots of teenagers and said they are all incredibly respectful and that the coach trip to the airport to come back home was almost silent There is an extra poignancy for him as he is Jewish and we know that some distant relatives of his were murdered at Auschwitz and also at Treblinka. I hope you don't mind me sharing some details of them

Those who are murdered were his grandparents 2nd or 3rd cousins but they never met as his (my husband) great grandparents left what is now Poland during the 1890s pogroms. They had lived in a town called Siedlce which had a 40% Jewish population in 1939. During the war Jews from across other parts of Poland along with Siedlce residents were imprisoned in the Ghetto there and then deported to Treblinka. No Jews returned there after the end of the war. Other relatives lived in Kaluszyn which also housed a ghetto where many Jews were murdered and those left alive sent to Treblinka.
Some of his great great uncles had gone to France in around 1910 to escape persecution in Poland. Once the Nazis entered Paris their families were rounded up and went to Drancy first and then to Auschwitz. Their ashes are probably in the grounds and paths you walk along with so many others.

We've talked a lot about whether people should visit these places, and the overwhelming feeling is Yes. Not just Jews. Roma, gay and lesbians and disabled people were also murdered by the Nazi regime and we should all remember where hateful rhetoric and scapegoating led. It shouldn't be left to those persecuted communities to be the memory keepers. People taking selfies etc is annoying but most people are respectful. Perhaps those who don't treat these places with respect are those who need them the most
.
The Holocaust galleries at IWM London are deeply moving and also overwhelming. I ended up crying next to the display of the hairbrushes and combs that had been stored by the Nazis and had to go and get some fresh air. I went before I met my husband. The added knowledge now that my children would have ended up in a camp along with their father brings a new additional pain to seeing these things.

Wow. I think this is one of the most beautiful eloquent posts I've ever seen on a forum. Thank you Itchy.

 

[Murphygirl]

I went to Auschwitz a few years ago and it was a very sobering visit. It really does bring it home what they went through and while it was unbearably sad, I think it’s important to remember their story. I didn’t take any photos though as it would have been completely inappropriate and it was more a day of quiet reflection and education

 

[Codiaeum]

I went to Auschwitz about twenty years ago. It was bitterly cold during January and my class was there for a few days, so we went in a couple of times. I heard it is very different these days, but when I went, it was very respectful and nobody took pictures. We were also asked by the guides to not smoke as they don’t want to see something that looks like a chimney smoking. Overall, very sobering but I’d sign up for it again.
I found it very important to visit, but heartbreaking and frankly hadn’t expected to be so moved by it. Everyone on that trip cried at some point. Our teachers told us that it’s a normal reaction and that most people would at some point start crying from it. I went to a very catholic school who did these trips regularly. I know some people wouldn’t want 16 year olds on such a trip, but I think it was very important to see it all. The sheer size of the place isn’t something you can understand from a documentary, nor seeing the barracks.
My personal breaking point were loads and loads of shaved off hair, color sorted. There are also a mountains of shoes, glasses and even walking aids, but the hair, sorted by color was what haunts me still.

I have also visited the monument to the holocaust in Berlin privately. I know many think it’s ugly, but I don’t think so. It was just underwhelming. I’ve also visited the monument in Boston, which is beautiful and sad and made me cry.

 

[Favourable.wind]

We went to Auschwitz-Birkineau in November but had really toyed with whether to go or not. Both my husband and I felt uncomfortable with the idea of visiting as it does seem wrong in a way to be visiting the sites as a "tourist" but eventually we felt it was important to go, partly to pay our respects, but also because while we had of course learned about the Holocaust in school and over the years, it felt as though our knowledge of it was basic at best.

We also felt that, although we might feel uncomfortable, it was nothing compared to what the victims/prisoners had gone through and that we all owe it to them to make sure it is not forgotten.

It was a haunting experience that I will never forget. The atmosphere in both sites just felt incredibly sad and heavy, as we expected, but it opened our eyes to the true scale of what took place. Seeing the belongings of the victims was heartbreaking, particularly the human hair and hall of shoes.

Regardless, we were both glad, if that is the right word, that we went as it made us realise that we had never truly understood the sheer scale before.

The guide we had was so respectful of the victims, as were 99% of the visitors. One woman in our group infuriated me right at the start by taking a selfie but the guide reminded her that she was at a memorial site and, although he could not stop her, it was inappropriate.

I know the memory will stay with me forever, particularly our guides final words to us "It happened once, so it can happen again"

 

[MrsBsDayOff]

I went to Auschwitz about 10 years ago, and found it incredibly informative and moving.

A few things that I found particularly emotional and haunting:
1. The display of crutches, suitcases and hair.
2. The pictures on the wall of one of the blocks, of prisoners. They looked so broken and would have died soon after.
3. The cell where people were forced to stand crammed together in a small space for a long time.

I probably wouldn't go to another concentration camp but I'm glad I went. I still think about it often.

 

[Felix08]

I went to Auschwitz last year. I wanted to go because one side of my family has lost their lives there.

I learned so much about the horrors that went on in the Camps but also outside.
How they would take over villages surrounding the Camps so that no one could get close. How they would kidnap blonde kids for the villages and gift them to the nazi’s.. it was all so horrible..