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.

Be prepared to be disappointed by your fellow tourists, however.

Yeah, this. I used to drive tourist coaches so I have been to Auschwitz, Dachau, Tereizenstadt and Mauthausen multiple times.

Honestly, I don't know what I think about it. Obviously people need to be educated about the holocaust, but Auschwitz in particular is such tourist experience now it does feel so wrong at so many levels. And yeah, watching so many grinning people taking selfies (or even family snaps!) there blows my mind. Not to mention the legendary passenger in our bus who asked me and the guide why there wasn't anywhere to buy a fridge magnet.

I went 8 years ago and I still think about it almost daily, if only for a fleeting moment. I felt ill being there but I don’t regret going and am glad I did.

I’m going in December. Ive read lots on it and for me its more than intrigue I guess. My paternal grandmother was German my Grandfather British and over the years I’ve had lots of Jewish friends. I just feel I need to go. I’m going with my DD who studied history and has a huge interest in the war. We’ve booked something nice for the day after as I’m told we’ll probably need it. I don’t intend taking pictures I want to experience it in full. Agree for many of these places photograph should be banned.

I’ve been to Dachau and I wouldn’t recommend it at all. I found it traumatising.

I'm not sure if I could go. It sounds a bit themed park for me, and I mean that in the sense of hordes of people traipsing through with their selfies and disrespectful behaviour on the instagram type tour. I would lose it if anyone around me was like that, so I'd probably give it a miss.

I do realise that the vast majority are respectful, but as always the few can spoil it for the many.

It would be good if there was a museum in Krakow with a virtual tour. No wandering off, no selfies, no laughing etc. Maybe there is one.

I sound like a right old batty misery guts. But that's what I feel about it TBH.

You’re being really nasty on this thread. Most of us know what terrible things went on in the camps. It’s possible to know it without necessarily needing to travel to the locations where it happened. Being mindful of how these things can affect one’s mental health isn’t the same thing at all as having one’s head in the sand.

I second this, I went last year with my 18 year old son, it's sad & thought provoking but it must been seen (& I feel very uncomfortable saying that). The guide asked everyone to NOT talk when walking through the gas chamber & people did, just awful.

Everyone should go. A key lesson in history. Awful - and so so important.

Yes I’ve been. I don’t regret it but it is harrowing. The thing that shocked me the most, is that there is a modern housing estate a stones throw away, with houses that have balconies overlooking the camp. I can’t imagine wanting to sit on my balcony with a glass of wine overlooking this!!

I understand, I was surprised that you are able to take photos, we didn't take any, it just didn't feel right.

Oh and there was a group of Americans there doing selfies and one actually said “imagine if this was real”……gotta love the yanks eh?

Absolutely agree with this.

I felt the same before I went, I felt a bit ghastly booking a trip like a macabre tourist, but afterwards I was very glad I did go. I can’t really put into words the difference between knowing/understanding/being horrified, compared with experiencing. It’s just different, and I’m glad I experienced it.

Like others have said, I was hugely disappointed with others there taking selfies and videos. It’s so disrespectful. Just go, experience first hand, be respectful.

Not Auschwitz, but I did recently visit Shepton Mallet prison in Somerset: now a listed building, and mostly kept exactly as it was. It has a reputation for being haunted, and we were shown where executions took place.

You can even stay there overnight, and sleep in a cell! If I'm feeling brave, I might do this next summer.

I went and I honestly regret it. It’s awful and pretty traumatising. You realise what people are capable of and it’s fucking horrifying.

We went, I would advocate driving or getting the bus and booking a small group tour separately, we found ours very respectful. Some of the coach trips with large group tours were just taking selfies and not really paying much attention. I was very glad I wasn't part of that. It also meant we got to ask questions and the guide was more conversational.
I will return with DS when he is old enough

In contrast to the minority who are disrespectful and ignorant in places like Auschwitz, I was in Ypres in August, and I don't know if anyone is familiar with there, but it's the epicentre of the Western Front of WW1 where literally millions died on the battlefields, it is beyond comprehension really.

Anyway every night at 8pm the Last Post is played at the Menin Gate. It is just so moving, hundreds, sometimes thousands of people gather and the night I was there not one person moved, spoke, coughed (!) or dared take a pic during the ceremony. That's how it's done.

i think especially during these times it‘s important to go.

But I was also shocked how some people behaved. Like taking a picture in one of two places they ask you not to take pictures. It was shocking.

In the world we're faced with at the moment, it can only be a good thing if you go and the horror never leaves you. We need to remember.

Taking selfies at a place like that is utterly, incomprehensibly, bizarre to me.

I am absolutely 100% certain that I would not support fascism or genocide. Why do I need to expose myself to upsetting things in order to know that?

You must have an extraordinarily charmed life to have to actively seek out upsetting things in order to make yourself hardy.

Do you genuinely believe that everyone who hasn’t went to a concentration camp as a tourist is unaware of the horrors of the Holocaust? Stupid post.

See, I can’t shake the feeling that it’s disrespectful to go as a tourist. It feels uncomfortable.

I’ve been. It is definitely not a pleasant day out, but it felt important to me to do so and to honour the memory of those who were killed and suffered there. I guess the question is whether you think you would regret going more than you would regret not going.

I went quite a long time ago, before smartphones, and everyone were very respectful - I don’t remember anyone behaving inappropriately. But I suspect more people visit now and standards of behaviour seem to have dropped in general.

There has certainly been an uptick in antisemitism in recent years which many seem to be overlooking.