Visit Auschwitz

In a couple of days I’m finally going to see Auschwitz. yay or maybe not…I don’t really know what to expect. It’s something you have to see when you’re in the vicinity, but at the same time it’s something you don’t want to see. But you do want to see it… sheesh I’m confusing myself!
But either way, I’m going and I’m somberly looking forward to it.

I’ve been accepted onto the Lessons from Auschwitz Project (UK), and so I will be visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau on November 6th.

It was a moving experience and historically very poignant, but wasn’t as emotional as I thought it would be if I am honest.

The crowding and pushing and rushing from one ‘exhibition’ to the next in a tour group meant that the real emotional impact wasn’t as great as some people had told me to expect. I can’t say that I am dissapointed that I wasn’t in floods of tears, but I think the horror and tragedy of the concentratioin camp was lost particularly as our guide’s broken english meant that she constantly tried to dramatise rather than letting teh stories speak for themselves.

Telling people about the trip since I have been back has made me realise how poignant it actually was in hindsight however. I am really glad that I have been there.

so this may actually happen.

Auschwitz is one of the most impressive and depressing sites I’ve ever seen. It’s actually 2 sites: Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II – Birkenau. Auschwitz I as a site itself is not that impressive: on a nice sunny day it looks tidy and ordered with lots of green grass and red brick buildings. The museums at Auschwitz I are horrific though, with rooms and rooms filled with shoes, briefcases, combs and even hair.

Birkenau however is the frightening image you have in your head of what Auschwitz was. There’s no words to describe the feeling you get when you walk around there. It’s definately a place everyone should see once. But once you’ve been, you don’t ever want to go back there, ever again.

My impressions of Auschwitz changed quite a lot throughout the day of our fieldtrip to Poland. On the coach I was apprehensive of the whole idea, despite my previous enthusiasm, I no longer wanted to go.

However upon my arrival, it seemed ordinary, like any old red brick building, and so this made me relax. When you go, you forget that it is not just a concentration camp, it is also a memorial to the millions dead, and I did not expect what I saw.

As you enter the marching courtyard, you forget that it was here men deemed too weak to continue to work were chosen for death by ruthless SS operatives; that is, until you seen the ironic ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ sign.

Truth become reality as you stand under that sign and behold the camp in all its grisly glory, the uniform layout of the sleeping quarters that could be any other barracks in any other country were they not surrounded by three fences of electrified barbed wire and watchtowers.

Snow lay thick upon the ground, adding a surreal quality to the place as I walked through it, icy water melting through my shoes and socks. Coldness seeps through your very consciousness, not because of the temperature or the snow, but because of the oppressive feeling of the place.

No animals can be seen or heard, except for the occasional black crow that noiselessly passes overhead. It is a cold lonely place, bleached of any former character and horrifying because of its plainness.

All horrors of the events that occurred only 60 years ago cannot be seen until you enter the blocks, where carefully thought out displays led my through the journey from ghetto to the gas chamber, and then through the daily life of an inmate, and then through the personal lives of some of those taken to Auschwitz.

Photos of children experimented upon by Josef Mengele, the angel of death; images of the effects of starvation upon the human body; experiments undertaken in the name of the questionable science of Eugenics. As well as the cruelty of being worked to death, these undertones of depravity occurring as the death camps competed with each other for the highest death rate and the most money made.

The efficiency and the disconnected way the Nazi’s dealt with their prisoners is shocking; the decades of propaganda working to make the enemies of the state sub-human. Removing the hair from corpses to make material for uniforms and bedrolls is sickening, especially when you see the roomful of women’s hair still intact. The gold teeth prised from corpse’s mouths, sent back to Germany, as well as the plundered jewellery and worthwhile goods from the luggage all turned Auschwitz into a grisly business.

Whatever you read in a book cannot be compared to the reality of the barbarity of the death camp, it is so usual during the study of history to disconnect from the sheer numbers of dead. War, plague, murder, assassination and massacres are commonplace, and it is only when you experience someplace such as a death camp that you can even partially comprehend the suffering and pain.

What is most repulsive about the place is that it was ordinary people like you and me that ran these places, death camps and gas chambers were borne out of a human mind and hatred, that those who brought about this suffering were not so different from us.

Most of us will never understand how the Nazi’s thought, or will ever be in the position that Germans of that era were in.

The first thing you see as you enter the first block is the phrase: Those who do not learn from history are forever doomed to repeat it. Every one of us who left Auschwitz that day shared those sentiments, and so despite all the horrific information we received that day, something good does come from visiting Auschwitz.

My impressions of Auschwitz changed quite a lot throughout the day of our fieldtrip to Poland. On the coach I was apprehensive of the whole idea, despite my previous enthusiasm, I no longer wanted to go.

However upon my arrival, it seemed ordinary, like any old red brick building, and so this made me relax. When you go, you forget that it is not just a concentration camp, it is also a memorial to the millions dead, and I did not expect what I saw.

As you enter the marching courtyard, you forget that it was here men deemed too weak to continue to work were chosen for death by ruthless SS operatives; that is, until you seen the ironic ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ sign.

Truth become reality as you stand under that sign and behold the camp in all its grisly glory, the uniform layout of the sleeping quarters that could be any other barracks in any other country were they not surrounded by three fences of electrified barbed wire and watchtowers.

Snow lay thick upon the ground, adding a surreal quality to the place as I walked through it, icy water melting through my shoes and socks. Coldness seeps through your very consciousness, not because of the temperature or the snow, but because of the oppressive feeling of the place.

No animals can be seen or heard, except for the occasional black crow that noiselessly passes overhead. It is a cold lonely place, bleached of any former character and horrifying because of its plainness.

All horrors of the events that occurred only 60 years ago cannot be seen until you enter the blocks, where carefully thought out displays led my through the journey from ghetto to the gas chamber, and then through the daily life of an inmate, and then through the personal lives of some of those taken to Auschwitz.

Photos of children experimented upon by Josef Mengele, the angel of death; images of the effects of starvation upon the human body; experiments undertaken in the name of the questionable science of Eugenics. As well as the cruelty of being worked to death, these undertones of depravity occurring as the death camps competed with each other for the highest death rate and the most money made.

The efficiency and the disconnected way the Nazi’s dealt with their prisoners is shocking; the decades of propaganda working to make the enemies of the state sub-human. Removing the hair from corpses to make material for uniforms and bedrolls is sickening, especially when you see the roomful of women’s hair still intact. The gold teeth prised from corpse’s mouths, sent back to Germany, as well as the plundered jewellery and worthwhile goods from the luggage all turned Auschwitz into a grisly business.

Whatever you read in a book cannot be compared to the reality of the barbarity of the death camp, it is so usual during the study of history to disconnect from the sheer numbers of dead. War, plague, murder, assassination and massacres are commonplace, and it is only when you experience someplace such as a death camp that you can even partially comprehend the suffering and pain.

What is most repulsive about the place is that it was ordinary people like you and me that ran these places, death camps and gas chambers were borne out of a human mind and hatred, that those who brought about this suffering were not so different from us.

Most of us will never understand how the Nazi’s thought, or will ever be in the position that Germans of that era were in.

The first thing you see as you enter the first block is the phrase: Those who do not learn from history are forever doomed to repeat it. Every one of us who left Auschwitz that day shared those sentiments, and so despite all the horrific information we received that day, something good does come from visiting Auschwitz.

I visited several years ago and found it a very powerful experience. It completely knocked me for six, though on the day I remember being very surprised that I couldn’t cry – I certainly felt emotional enough, but I was kind of numbed. We must never forget – that was the message that came away with me.

I went to Auschwitz a few months ago and would definitely recommend it as a place to visit. I read a lot about it before I went and thought I’d get really upset there, but the scale of the atrocities there is just so overwhelming that it’s hard to take in at the time. I found that afterwards images of exhibits or photographs would pop into my head and would be quite upsetting.

I would say this to anyone planning a visit: there are signs everywhere saying not to take photos inside the buildings, so out of respect for all the people who died there and all the other visitors, don’t run around taking loads of close-up flash photos of gas chambers and exhibits. There are plenty of guidebooks with these pictures in and you can snap away to your heart’s content outside, but it just seems incredibly disrespectful to do so inside.

just got back from trip to krakow, poland and visit to Auschwitz. Definitely worth going to, but i felt weird as it was a very very crowded ‘tourist attraction’. Very emotional experience.

TIP: for those visiting from krakow, take PKS bus from main bus\train station to Oswiecizm Muzeum. Fare each way: ~$2