Auschwitz visit

We went to Auschwitz Birkenau whilst visting Krakow in February '07.

What made the biggest impact on me was how cold it was. We all had several layers on of modern, man-made fabrics (thermal base-layer etc) and yet still thought it cold. Enduring the same temperature in some thin cotton clothes was hard, if not impossible, to comprehend.
 
Greebo said:
It will change your life forever.
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No it won't. You will feel down, depressed and empathic for a while but then you will go home and everything will be the same.

I'm not being flippant either, I have been to Auschwitz and countless other war related sites in Europe and felt exactly what you're feeling now, but you know what, it didn't change my life. In fact in reflection I think a lot of it was a sense that I was obligated to feel like that.

Our brains cannot comprehend suffering and death on such a massive scale, it's like trying to understand the size of the universe. Also, it was too long ago, the war and what went on during it have no effect on people of my age (mid 20's), it's history. Of course that's just my opinion, but i think I'm not far off.

I'm not saying don't go, it's a very worth while experience, but I think once you sit down at your desk at work the next Monday morning, it will still be the same you.
 
I was there last month. I found it funny that the majority of punters was German. Anyway, well worth a visit. We're going again in January. Must be brutal in the winter.
 
My Daughter came back on friday and she was in Krakow all last week.
She went to Auschwitz on wednesday.
She wants to know if you took a decent picture of the pool/water next to the train track and if you can post it up please.
And did you take a picture of the standing up cells?
 
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As others have already said it's a harrowing place, which really does make you think about how evil some people can be. This may be a very twisted and weird thing to say but it's almost impressive (but in a terrible way) how efficient they were, the whole place was a killing production line and they managed to keep records on everything (names, DoB, dates/times people were killed); something that most big organisations couldn't managed to do now even with computers/technology.

If you get the chance it really is worth a visit although some areas I couldn’t go in to/read about, those being the sections dedicated to the children, just way too disturbing.

Anyway for those interested my pictures from my visit:- http://www.flickr.com/photos/andybakeruk/sets/72157615146367928/
 
regulus said:
It sure is. Nobody ran concentration camps like we did a 112 years ago in Southern Africa.
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There's a big difference.

The British used them to inter Boer families as a standing army couldn't defeat a guerilla force. Poor hygiene and disease killed 20,000.

The Nazis ran them to exterminate their undesirables.

As abhorrent as concentration camps are, the British may have invented them but they were never designed for mass murder.
 
Makunouchi said:
Our brains cannot comprehend suffering and death on such a massive scale, it's like trying to understand the size of the universe. Also, it was too long ago, the war and what went on during it have no effect on people of my age (mid 20's), it's history. Of course that's just my opinion, but i think I'm not far off.
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But it's not, as I said earlier genocide at a much greater level was seen in 1994 in Rwanda.
And in 1993, we witnessed the Srebrenica massacre. The things that Auschwitz and other concentration/death camps represent aren't some abstract historical idea that we've evolved out of and are now resigned to the history books because we are better people due to it. No, the things which it represents (evil, genocide, the futility of life, the willingness for those to follow orders even when obviously wrong, and the list goes on) are still happening and have happened in our lifetimes.
Yes, WWII wasn't in our lifetimes but the ideas used in that have influenced genocide in our lifetimes. Compared to what the Hutus did in Rwanda, the Nazis were smallfry.
We must remember these things, and try and prevent it from happening again. Unfortunately, this hasn't worked but who knows what we can achieve if we keep on trying maybe one day the idea of genocide can be laid to rest.
 
We went in March, it was cold, windy and snowing. I'm quite glad actually, it would not quite have felt the same in summer I think.

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I would like to go one day, I made the trip to Normandy for the 65th anniversary, it was a humbling experience especially on the last night on the beach before a massive firework display along all the beaches we talked to an 85+ year old gentlemen who told us what it was like to land and see dead bodies all around.

They were brave men, they had a purpose to liberate and free people, give them hope.

The dark side of the war was in camps like this, very disturbing what transpired there, people had no hope at all, and the evil wasn't really known until after the war.

Highlighting it is very important for everyone to learn and remember from the past!

:(
 
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