School trip to Auschwitz - opimnions

"I am offended by your comments"

I can almost see the mad glint in the eyes

I agree with cod, and pmsl at maisywhatserface as well

I agree that it isn't necessary to go to these places in order to have some understanding of what happened there. But it is one way of understanding... and I would imagine (I haven't been, though I would be interested to do so) a very effective one.

I strongly believe, though, that Auschwitz should remain as a memorial.

And a big fat PARP from me too!

Oooh that felt good

Someone posted a link to an online tour - have you all looked at it? Because to be honest I found that harrowing enough and it's just pictures. Surely that would be more appropriate than taking them there at 14? Also agree that many 14 years may not be mature enough to take it seriously. I remember when my year at school went to Ypres seeing a girl spit in one of the graveyards and others sneaking off to get drunk.

parp me too. BIWT I agree with you though.

Parp, too.

south - at least you apologised for causing another poster to feel offended.

ELF - agree completely. Why on earth send a 14 yr old on a trip like this? It really isn't necessary. We don't need to mentally hurt our children to make them see the line between good and evil. We can educate them to understand it through imagination and empathy and research. In a way that won't keep them awake at night.

when I was at uni, in london, when a teacher mentioned the jews during the second world war a girl whispered 'why? what happened to the jews?' I was so shoked. I honestly thought that no one was unaware of this terrible bit of history.

sorry but in order to avoid this I'd risk my DC or any other to have a few nightmares.

i'm going to parp myself on this thread

my ds has been to ypres. enough war for him I think

If you think I'm over protecting teens, my children are 15 and 12. My ds1 has been twice to the trenches in Normandy as part of school trips.

I would encourage both of them - even my youngest son - should trips be available - to go to Auschwitz.

I went when I was 11.

i would be guided by ds.. but would rather he didn't go. i think 14 is way too young to go.
I do wonder how old the children are of people who say we are over protecting teens.

I honestly do not think that at 14 you have to go to these places to "understand" senseless mass murder.

Surely places like these are where you go when you are adult, make your own choices and want to go for one reason or another. Not going because its a school trip and the teachers think it is a good idea.

I know that I would have been affected by a trip to a concentration camp. And as my daughter gets older, it is my duty to protect her from having to do things which could seriously upset her mentally. Yes, she is going to learn about the wars that there have been, and how humans have treated one another, but there is a difference between watching documentaries, reading text books and being taught in a class room to standing in a room where you KNOW that so many innocent people died like animals.

I've forgotten who i disagree with!

Moving too quickly!

lisalisa your description made me cry, it must be so hard to be there.

however I'd want my child to see things like this. re the age, that should be judged by the parent as some 14yo are more ready than others. it will certainly shock them, give them some nightmares and they might not get as much as you would at 30, but it'll teach them a great deal. life is not just fun and pleasure, certainly not for everyone.

I remember having nightmares about the war and being terrified of another one starting.

I'm sorry, but I strongly disagree. Without this experience we offer our children a sanitised version of the war.

What we have available to us with places like Auschwitz and Dachau is living history. It is a fantastic resource to give us more insight into the facts that we learn.

Yes, it is harrowing. But so were the facts. (In fact I think we probably cannot even begin to understand just how harrowing it really was).

When they are being taught about the war, they should - IMO - be given as much insight into the whole experience as possible.

my mil was shot at as an 8 year old in hampstead heath. my fil fought in burma. my mum grew up in west london during the blitz. she saw some bloody awful things.

everyone suffered. but there comes a time to move on

Please note that I am making no reference to the DC of any MN poster here: I think any teenagers who have shown signs of racially-motivated bullying of other kids should be taken to a museum like this as it might make them think a little. Even though it's highly likely that some teenagers might sttart off such a trip being flippant or unpleasant, I don not think they would be able to escape the effects of it entirely.

BIWI fair enough.

lisalisa, yes the cabinets are huge. And you are right about the birds and the silence at the site of the crematorium. I've never felt anything like it.There's a patch of water where they would throw the ashes in (still there) and there is no wildlife or birds there. Despite it being in the 70s, that particular spot was very cold. I'm not trying to sensationalise it - that is how it is. That's why I am so certain that it's not somewhere my children would be exposed to.

FWIW, I think that cod has a point. Not that Auschwitz has nothing to do with WWII, obviously. It's impossible to dissociate Auschwitz and the Holocaust as a whole from what happened during the war. However, in a way, I think that to describe the people who died in Auschwitz as 'prisoners of war' is somehow to lessen the awfulness and senselessness of what happened there. The term 'PoW' normally refers to a prisoner taken legitimately by the opposing side in a war. There were, if I understand correctly, some PoWs in that sense at Auschwitz, just as there were political prisoners. But the vast majority of those who died there (as well as the few who survived) were sent there purely and simply for reasons over which they had no control (being Jewish (mostly)... or gay, or Roma, or having learning difficulties) and they were sent there not as a consequence of belonging to any army or military group but because someone had decided that the world would be a better place without them. So, I would agree that 'prisoners of war' is the wrong term.

I think I'd be OK with my dds going at 14 or thereabouts, but they are a long way off that now, so I'm not wholly sure. I'd prepare them for it though (out with the Primo Levi again...), and tbh I'd prefer to take them myself than have them go with school.

icod - you ask where you deny - well when you write the following "but altho deaths occured at dachu it wasnt an extermination camp liek auscwhitz"
and "wel LITERLLAY its not to do wiht he war is it "
and then when you post "id have classed it as aprt of hitlers domestic policy " not a denial but factually incorrect imho.

to me really offensive remarks.

when does the time come to move on though?

Argh to 'burning in' anything about mass slaughter to children. The point is this trip is not necessary to become a rounded human being nor to being a historian.