School trip to Auschwitz - opimnions

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gibberish - didn't think you were arguing with me, this post is moving too quickly!

I can understand why people would disagree.

And it is terribly upsetting.

But I'm not always sure we should be protecting our children from the upsetting - when we're dealing with such important issues, of course.

I think that provided the school are going to "debrief" adequately, children should definitely go to these places. It's giving me tyhe shivers to think about it, but some of the things I learnt in history at that age still inform my opinions today. And if you can BURN IN a hatred of violence and murder at a young age, that's no bad thing.

I have read through the whole thread and still think NO

And btw, Cod - Dachau was a death camp. I remember visiting the gas chambers. The numbers killed weren't as great as Auschwitz, but enough to get the general gist of things.

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sorry if i offended you lisalisa

I'm not arguing with you BIWI, honestly . I agree they should learn about what happened. My girls have studied WW2 and have read about the attrocities and watched programmes regarding it. dd1 has developed an interest and has completed several projects over the last few years. It's just that, having been to Auschwitz myself and knowing I am still not over what I saw after a year, I just couldn't put my children through seeing it. I would encourage them to go when they are older but not when they are 14.

Personally I would say no. I'm only 26 myself and going to a place like this I think would affect me greatly.

You do not need to go to these places to get the war. Just like you do not need to go to the site of the world trade centre to grasp the horror of what happened.

Why would anyone want their child to go to Auschwitz? I don't mean why shouldn't the place exist as a museum, I mean why would you want someone you cared for to go and be traumatised? Not what's the point of the wolrd knowing about it but why would you want an individual you cared about to be put under huge stress by visiting.

I don't plan to pack my ds off to Darfur or Ruwanda in a few years time for him to 'get' how miserable things are there.

imho - it was wrong to say it wasn't to do with the war and also it was only people from occupied lands (wrong) - plus then trivilising it with shergar. This topic needs respect and it really did offend me to see that. Sorry if this gets to others but this is my opinion.

But in a hundred years' time, when no-one who survived the Holocaust, or who fought to liberate Europe, is alive, or their children, the impact of this horrific event will be inevitably diminished. I think a permanent memorial of the magnitude of the Auschwitz site has to be kept, so that future, disconnected generations can have an inkling of what went on.
I am not sure I'd want a child of mine going on a teen school trip to Auschwitz though. For the same sorts of reasons alluded to by dino and others - not that they might not be too traumatised by it, but that they might not take it seriously enough.

Sorry - I should put some perspective on my views. I'm not talking about children. But by 14 or 15, when they're studying the subject, I think they are old enough to be exposed to the less savoury (and more human) aspects of the war.

Because they are not able to deal with it. They are still children.

the grass should be allowed to grow back to that horrible place.

It's a sad state of affairs if folk dont read properly on an internet forum.

Makes it farking difficult to have a sensible conversation.

As demonstrated by folk accusing cod of being a holocaust denier

Yes - harrowing. But why shouldn't our children see that? Why shouldn't they feel that?

If they don't, there is a real danger that they won't see just how unjust, how cruel, how dangerous the whole Nazi regime was.

Maybe especially because it is so harrowing?

I was a bit taken aback by the razed to the ground comment as well LisaLisa. One of the most thoughtprovoking things on the subject of the Holocaust I have seen on video wasn't in the least bit explicit - it was video footage from the spielberg archive of the Warsaw Jewish community in 1939 - and then thinking of just what would most likely have happened to the children on the film

There are glass cabinets, from one side of a room to the other side - very long, containing thousands and thousands of shoes. Men's shoes, women's shoes, hundreds of children's and babies' shoes. There is another HUGE cabinet crammed from bottom to top with human hair... is that really something our children have to actually see to understand what happened in the holocaust? I am actually crying typing that because it was so horrific.

But how can we teach them about WW2 (which is a key GCSE subject) if we don't also educate them about what went on in places like Auschwitz?

I really, really don't understand why you think 14 or 15 year olds should be protected from this.

sorry lisalisa, but i do think that it's a terrible place, why preserve it.

it should be left alone

oh sorry cod, got you now (I think)

pmsl

Abattoir: I see nothing wrong with children knowing that they are eating cows and pigs etc, but seeing them being slaughtered - no I am happy for them not to see that until/unless they want to. I tend not to want anyone seeing death unless they feel they are ready for it.

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