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Original poster

DD Berlin/Auschwitz school trip

104 replies

january123 · 05/05/2023 18:46

Bit of a dilemma. DD (15) has been offered the opportunity as part of History GCSE to go to Berlin and then onto Auschwitz.

It's £900 + spending money for a full itinerary of 5 days which includes entry to all relevant museums/galleries/sights. It's not money we have laying around and DD isn't overly interested in going. However DH and I feel she would get a great deal personally out of the experience as well as supporting her learning.

I've never been to Auschwitz but imagine it must have a profound effect on visitors and think it would do the same for DD.

So to the point, should we encourage her to go or save our money?!

OP posts:
LysHastighed · 05/05/2023 22:32

I’ve been to Auschwitz and Mauthausen and I think the value in it is when you choose to be these. Going because you weren’t bothered either way won’t have the same depth.

Original poster
january123 · 05/05/2023 22:32

Really appreciate everyone's thoughts, really grateful

OP posts:
senua · 05/05/2023 22:36

WomanBitingATowel · 05/05/2023 19:04

If she’s not interested, I definitely wouldn’t sacrifice things yourselves to send her on this trip. And no, not necessarily — some people do trudge around concentration camps taking sad duckface selfies or gossiping about whether Daniel really shagged Chloe in the back row of the bus to the airport. It’s not necessarily some kind of transformative experience.

I agree with this. Auschwitz / Birkenau can be profound if you are receptive but there are many children doing the enforced coach trip who just don't get it.

Let her wait until she is ready. It will still be there.

Mooshamoo · 05/05/2023 22:39

I felt a bit faint and scarred after visiting Auschwitz.

Important to see for the history.

But it had a bad impact on me. I don't know if I did the right thing to see it to be honest

JudgeRudy · 05/05/2023 22:47

Save your money and go yourself.

summerisontheway · 05/05/2023 23:06

It is quite a grim (depressing) itinerary and probably would be of more value if she were also interested in studying German? It seems very expensive and would be a swerve from me.

effingcataracts · 05/05/2023 23:23

It's ridiculously expensive.
If she's not that interested she won't get much out of it. She doesn't want to continue studying history either.
It is important to learn about the holocaust, but that doesn't mean everyone has to go to Auschwitz. Anyway, she could go later with you or as an adult.

UsingChangeofName · 05/05/2023 23:29

Agree with most, that does seem a lot of money for the trip, and also a disproportionate amount of time traveling - I sort of understand a longer coach trip if it is going to save money, but this doesn't seem to be?

I haven't been to Auschwitz.. I want to go. I think it is important that as many people of every generation see it with their own eyes and that it has a real impact, but I'm not sure your dd is ready to go yet.
One of my dc went, but he has studying history and really wanted to. He was very moved by the experience. I am not sure someone who isn't bothered, will be.

As others have suggested, you could go as a family at some point in the future.

Florenz · 05/05/2023 23:36

bunnyrabbitsandbutterflies · 05/05/2023 22:20

They drove to Poland and back in less that 24hours and that included a visit to Auschwitz?

Show quote history

It was a while ago, and my DS didn't go. I'm sure they must have flown. I don't think it's possible to do that in day by road. I remember everyone thinking it was a lot to do in day even by air. But it kept the price of the trip much lower.

TheFormidableMrsC · 05/05/2023 23:40

My DD was utterly traumatised at a similar age by a similar trip. Took her ages to get over it. I encouraged her to go and regretted it.

bluetongue · 05/05/2023 23:44

AnnaMagnani · 05/05/2023 22:13

@Iminthemoneylife I did go to Birkenau.

It was a very sunny spring day and there were people having a lovely time photographing the flowers while standing in a death camp that goes as far as the eye can see.

It was a very strange and difficult experience.

Sounds similar to my visit to Mauthausen. Lovely late spring day in the green Austrian hills but the actual site was devastating. I’ll never forget standing in the gas chamber or the crematorium rooms with photos and candles for victims 😥 My tour also had a fairly large number of American Jews and they were visibly upset.

TheaBrandt · 05/05/2023 23:51

Definitely decline if she’s not bothered and not doing history.

Dd did a day trip to Auschwitz recently as part of a program but she is year 12 and doing history A level. She is now some sort of ambassador so has to educate the other children and attended a zoom with a survivor. It was gruelling and horrific I couldn’t bear to hear some of it.

I appreciate the younger generation need to know and rightly so but personally find it unbearable. I had to leave the Anne Frank museum in Amsterdam. I can’t bear to hear the details.

Florenz · 05/05/2023 23:54

I think it's something everyone should see if they get chance. I haven't been but I have been to the Anne Frank house and to the Holocaust museum over here. The Holocaust really wasn't that long ago, there are still survivors living.

effingcataracts · 06/05/2023 00:03

bluetongue · 05/05/2023 23:44

Sounds similar to my visit to Mauthausen. Lovely late spring day in the green Austrian hills but the actual site was devastating. I’ll never forget standing in the gas chamber or the crematorium rooms with photos and candles for victims 😥 My tour also had a fairly large number of American Jews and they were visibly upset.

Show quote history

Yes I went to Mauthausen too on a similar type of day. It just makes the whole thing even worse - the disconnect between the beautiful countryside and sunshine and then the gas chambers, and also the huts the prisoners slept in, imagining them all crammed in there.

tiktokboom · 06/05/2023 00:04

I'd not bother if she doesn't want to go.

FWIW it's worth, to counter the views that insists it will help with her studies....I didn't even do History GCSE then took it as an A level, 50% of it was Nazi Germany depth study. I got an A (in the 90s, this was before A stars).

Never been on a trip like this, there was nothing on offer.

She really, really does not need to go on a £900 trip to pass her GCSE history.

Mila1234567 · 06/05/2023 00:10

Usernamaste · 05/05/2023 19:32

I did a guided tour of Polish concentration camps and ghettos last year. It was an incredible experience and worth every penny of the extremely high price. However, I had read extensively and obsessively about WW2 for 30 years beforehand, and visited every holocaust museum possible, so it was fascinating to have the opportunity to see the sites first hand. I wouldn’t have got my money’s worth if I hadn’t been so well-informed beforehand, although it would still have been an interesting (and harrowing) experience.
I think it may be slightly wasted on a disinterested teenager with very little life experience.

There are no 'Polish concentration camps', they were all Nazi German camps. https://correctmistakes.auschwitz.org/

Auschwitz

https://correctmistakes.auschwitz.org

specialsauce · 06/05/2023 00:13

I've been to Berlin and the Holocaust memorial - that was difficult enough.

I think if my child was going to go to Auschwitz I'd want to be with them as it could be very shocking and have a really profound effect. 15 is a very vulnerable age for many.

It does also seem quite pricey!

Dodgeitornot · 06/05/2023 00:22

I don't think I'd send my child on that, no, not if they weren't desperate to go and not for that amount of money. It's free to get in to Auschwitz. It's just a tour guide they'll be paying for and a huge coach bill no doubt. There's really good train connections they could easily take and much cheaper.
Anyway, it's pretty harrowing and I wouldn't really want my 15 year old DD to go without me.

Dodgeitornot · 06/05/2023 00:23

@Mila1234567 I think it's pretty obvious that poster was talking about concentration camps within geographical Poland.

Peachmangolemon · 06/05/2023 00:46

I'm taking my daughter to Krakow in the summer holidays for a few nights so we can visit Auschwitz. She'll be doing A level history next year and has been wanting to go for a few years. She's now 16, so we felt she was old enough to appreciate the magnitude of the place. We're leaving DH with her siblings at home and going away just the two of us, the flights and 3 nights in a 4/5 star hotel for 2 is much, much cheaper than £900.

I wouldn't have sent her with school if she wasn't passionate about the subject.

Mila1234567 · 06/05/2023 00:48

Dodgeitornot · 06/05/2023 00:23

@Mila1234567 I think it's pretty obvious that poster was talking about concentration camps within geographical Poland.

It doesn't matter. Would you call Guantanamo Cuban detention camp? This term is controversial and problematic. We should be mindful of what we say in the same way we do about other things (ex. using inclusive language).

Peachmangolemon · 06/05/2023 00:50

Peachmangolemon · 06/05/2023 00:46

I'm taking my daughter to Krakow in the summer holidays for a few nights so we can visit Auschwitz. She'll be doing A level history next year and has been wanting to go for a few years. She's now 16, so we felt she was old enough to appreciate the magnitude of the place. We're leaving DH with her siblings at home and going away just the two of us, the flights and 3 nights in a 4/5 star hotel for 2 is much, much cheaper than £900.

I wouldn't have sent her with school if she wasn't passionate about the subject.

I will also add, like PPs have said, that we (DH and I) preferred one of us to be with her to visit such a harrowing place.

Mooshamoo · 06/05/2023 01:33

Mila1234567 · 06/05/2023 00:10

There are no 'Polish concentration camps', they were all Nazi German camps. https://correctmistakes.auschwitz.org/

Show quote history

She means the Nazi concentration camps that are in Poland.

Auschwitz is in poland

Mooshamoo · 06/05/2023 01:38

TheFormidableMrsC · 05/05/2023 23:40

My DD was utterly traumatised at a similar age by a similar trip. Took her ages to get over it. I encouraged her to go and regretted it.

I was also totally traumatised by visiting Auschwitz. We are encouraged to go as it is part of history.

But really more should be said about how traumatising it can be.

When I visited Auschwitz the worst thing was - the guide brought us in to see these solitary confinement cells. Which are basically dark brick holes. In a dark place. We all filed in , in the dark. A child in our group started screaming over and over and had to be brought out. I began to ask myself why did I think I was a good idea to come here. I didn't sleep well for a week after.

Also, why do they allow young children in there

Mooshamoo · 06/05/2023 01:41

I remember the steps Auschwitz guided tour that I did.

  1. brought to see the sign
  2. we were brought to see the block where mengele tortured people with medical experiments
  3. we were brought to see the block that has loads of human hair and the inmates suitcases.
  4. We were brought to see the gas chambers
  5. we were brought to see solitary confinement cells in the dark
  6. we were brought to see the shooting wall. Where they shot men, women and children

It's not for the fainthearted.