A question for anyone who’s been to Auschwitz

[AI41]

Are you pleased you went, or do you regret going?

We’re going to Krakow on Boxing Day for a few days, and inevitably will need to discuss whether to visit Auschwitz. I’m going with two friends and obviously they can make their own decision. One of my friends is very interested in the war so I suspect he will want to go.

I was once told by someone who visited in the 80s that he regretted going because the horror has never left him. I am erring towards not going. But other people who’ve visited said to go and they don’t regret it at all.

The organisation which runs Auschwitz really doesn't like remembering that part of the history.

I used to follow their account on social media, some of the pictures and stories they shared of the people and children who were killed are heartbreaking.

However anyone commenting on the involvement of Polish people are very clear that they try to depoliticise that part of remembrance. I stopped following in the end as I couldn't reconcile the blind spot they seemed to have

But I don’t think it’s an inaccurate description.

We went skiing last year in Zakopane. Just me and DS (19).
I've been to Auschwitz before and it stuck with me. DS was keen on seeing the salt mines but I thought it was important he saw Auschwitz

You can read books, see documentaries, watch YouTube videos but nothing prepares you for it

I've not read the thread but will do. You see the rooms full of belongings. Children's shoes. Hair, You see the cramped cells they used to suffocate people. The gallows to hang people

The gas chambers themselves and the ovens. The scratch marks. You see the massive camp at Auschwitz 2 with the infamous railway tracks and platform. You can only imagine the horrors of what happened there

It reinforced my personal view that something like this should never happen again.

We know that hatred towards Jews and the Holocaust didn't happen overnight. It was propaganda, media manipulation, fake news, salami tactics with Jewish people and other groups becoming Other, being targeted, losing their jobs, going to ghettos and eventually the Holocaust

That's why I fight now when groups get targeted.

I hope it had an impact on DS. We never really discussed it afterwards but I hope he can use that experience as few teenagers and students ever actually get to visit Auschwitz

I think World Leaders, especially the Current US President, should pay a visit

They should also go into space so they get a perspective on the world.

I heartily endorse that plan. I think they need to get going building a very large space ship, though. I have a very long list of people who should be invited to that party. Maybe the inaugural event of the big beautiful ballroom could include a launch.

I think it is important.

In Germany, it is something that almost all school children are taken to do, to make sure that future generations know the importance of learning from the horrors of the past.

I am glad I have been, because when we become immune to or ignorant of the atrocities of the past, that’s how history repeats itself.

For example, my grandfather was on the beaches on D-Day. He couldn’t swim, and had to wade into the water supported by a friend and just hope to be saved before he drowned or was shot. He was lucky enough to be picked up by boat and live another 80 years, and was a lifelong supporter of the RNLI as he knew what it was like to wait for either a boat to save you or the sea to take you. He drilled into all of his kids and grandkids the importance of being able to swim, and the importance of saving lives at sea by telling us truthfully the terrible things that happened to him. If more people had been raised like that, we wouldn’t have fuckwits calling to defund the RNLI and laugh reacting at news stories of people drowning now.

I went a couple of years ago and while it was genuinely harrowing and I can't unhear some of the truly horrific things the guide told me that I didn't know before, I'm glad I went. With all the antisemitism around at the moment, I wish more people would go.

Where is your evidence that “many” poles handed over Jews to the nazis? There are obviously bad apples in every nation. The French were particularly notorious for collaboration.
You seem to forget that the Poles themselves were brutally treated by the Germans and put in Auschwitz themselves.
Maybe some who were hiding Jews relented if that was the choice between that and their own children’s lives. The death of one German soldier could mean your innocent son was hanged.
The Poles suffered horrendously under German occupation and fought heroically in Britain, playing a decisive role in the Battle of Britain.

My point exactly.

I've been the only person present at some very dark places. Some that you feel inside you (I'm not exaggerating either). Auschwitz? It's a tourist attraction.