Auschwitz-Birkenau

I went there on Friday while on a long weekend in Kraków.

Obviously everyone will know much of what took place there and the information is easily accessible, but even though we've heard accounts from numerous people involved, I think you appreciate it a great deal more when you see the place.

The vast majority of both sites have been pretty much preserved as they were left. Some parts have been restored to some degree but you don't feel like you're in an exhibit or a museum. There are some displays behind glass and some plaques explaining certain things but that's pretty much it. At Auschwitz you have a guide who is miked up and you carry a small radio around with you. For this reason you don't really interact with either your friends or people in your group - you get lost in your own world listening to the guide. Most people seemed to be shuffling about ashen faced and the mood is appropriately sombre - very few people pointing things out to each other.

You see the thousands upon thousands of shoes left behind, piled up just as on the day the Germans left. There are piles upon piles of female hair. You get taken into the cells themselves and then the worst part of the tour - the gas chambers. The chambers at Auschwitz have been preserved exactly as they were whereas those at Birkenau were destroyed. To stand in the same confined space where over a million people had their lives so efficiently and callously ended, it's an overwhelming experience.

At Birkenau, the entrance is the iconic watchtower. The train tracks run in either direction right up to the entrance itself so that the Jews could step straight off the train to be "assessed" and sent on to work or a much worse fate. At Birkenau there is a chance to speak to the guide a bit more and you take the walk of death. The Jews here were basically ferried in and the women and children under fifteen were just sent straight on the walk so would have been dead within an hour of their arrival. Again, treading a path that over a million people took to their death, it gets to you.

There's a lot more I could say but I'm starting to ramble. If you are ever in a position to visit then I would strongly recommend it. Obviously you won't have a pleasant time but valuable experiences are not always so.

 

That's a hugely powerful picture you have painted. It is an absolute must for me to do the same trip in the not too distant future.

Aside from the not very pleasant trip to Auschwitz, how was Krakow - nice place to visit?

 

Friends went last year - said it was an incredibly moving experience - how people can deny it happened is beyond me

 

Kraków is a great city - quite similar to Prague but more lively I would say. Good beer, good snap, friendly locals, relaxed and very cheap. Beers between £1.50 and £2.00, meal in a good restaurant about £15.00.

 

I doubt I'll ever make the trip, James, but I admire those who do.
The ultimate example of man's inhumanity to man, of what happens when we dehumanise someone else simply for being different, when we blame someone else for all the ills of a society.

 

I think what got to me most was how efficient it was and how they were always looking for ways to make it more so. As I mentioned in my first post, the women and children were of the trains and dead within the hour, then the next lot were brought in. It really was a death factory - they were manufacturing death on an industrial scale.

 

Several years ago i went round Burgen- Belson, which was destroyed after it was liberated. On entering there is a reception centre where there is displays behind glass of piles of stripped suits they wore, shoes ,glasses , articles they made and other items belonging the unfortunate inmates. There is a film room showing conditions in the camp and the liberating armys at the camp. Walking round the camp is large grassed mounds with plaques detailling the numbers of victims , a large walled monument and a area with a monument dedicated to Russian victims. They say you hear or see no birds around the camp, which seems true.

 

I have never been able to get my head round the fact that the industrial genocide practised came so easy to so many. Which is the danger you run when dehumanising fellow man.

 

We did the same trip 2yrs ago, its an experience you cannot truly describe its one that you have to experience yourself. You cannot even start to imagine the conditions that these people were kept in. its a must trip but a very somber one. Another one to take in whilst there is the salt mines, a very pleasant trip 4hrs underground and only saw 10% of the place. would love to go again. maybe next year

 

The number who were involved but outside of the camps makes you realise the scale of the operation.

Apparently, they preferred to use the gas chambers because shooting people was having too much of a psychological affect on the SS. Not sure if that's entirely true as one guard shot 25,000 people.

 

terrible what the Germans did and still in living memory for many

I visited Oradour sur Glane in France which is a village that was massacred by the Germans for no reason,a french bloke told me it was simply revenge as the germans could see victory slipping away

http://www.oradour.info/

The village was left exactly as the Germans wrecked it as a monument not only to the dead but as a reminder as to the utter complete madness of war.Charles De Gaulle said it must never be forgotten.

Women and kids were sent into the church which was then set alight,killing them all.Men were shot in the street


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/d...ance-moments-of-Nazi-massacre-frozen-in-time/

well worth a read and if you ever get chance,a visit.

 

Can you give me a bit of advice on the best ways to do this, James?

Looking at going over either this summer (late) or some time early next year.

Two or three days enough? How much? Hotels, flights, prices etc? Tour prices?

I can't be arsed wading through the reviews etc online when I can get it from a fellow tarn lad.

Cheers.

 

One of the most emotional days of my life. The sheer scale of the operations they ran was overwhelming and mind boggling. As you say, the callous efficiency they employed to improve the process is astounding.

I silently wept as you know when I saw the image of the children aged around 5, taken as they were walking to their deaths. Such unimaginable horror inflicted onto innocent folk.

That walk into the gas chamber at Auschwitz 1 is almost surreal. Like you said, the thought that you can walk out at any time whilst those countless poor soles went in to never do so is overwhelming.

Birkenau is more overwhelming in the sheer scale of the place and that it was an automated death factory. Inmates stripped of any remaining dignity. If it wasn't for the 50 or so who escaped we'd have no record of the ways and means of industrial death they used.

Over 8000 were known to have worked there. Less than 1000 have been brought to justice.

 

Not to steal his thunder but 3 days about right, stretch to 4 if you can. We had a serviced apartment and all in with flights was £200 each for 4. Loads to see and do, plenty of bars and restaurants, as well as AB,there's Schindler's factory, now a museum covering the war years, the Old Jewish quarter, Ghetto and numerous churches. Further afield there's a glacial lake that is apparently very beautiful

Can't recommend it enough.

 

Hi if you want to call me between 12noon and 3pm or after 7pm I will gladly tell you how we did it. 07843382197

 

Cheers pal. Wanted a short break somewhere we've never been and it's always been on the to-do list for my partner, Auschwitz. Poles I know at work always telling me I'd love a few days in Poland because "beer very cheap for you Andy". They know me well.

Do we go for some sort of package though, or what?

 

Cheers buddy, I might well give you a bell tomorrow.

 

To add to what Redstar said, we booked flights from Manchester with Jet2 and booked a taxi to take us to the apartment for £20. The apartment was a couple of minutes walk from the old town square.

We found a company who arrange tours where they arrange transport, entrance and an English guide to take you around Auschwitz. Cost £30 and you should allow seven hours. The rest of the city is compact enough to get around on foot.

 

We booked it all ourselves. Trips can be arranged at quite a few places when you are there - get on an official trip to AB as you get a guide for your group even there. Ours was very knowledgeable and informative.

Ale is cheap!

 

Cheers lads. Apologies for barging into the thread though.