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Original poster

AIBU to think I'm not 'goulish' for visiting Auschwitz?

307 replies

HumperdinkFangboner · 20/05/2011 19:34

DH and I are going to Krakow early next year, with the intention of visiting Auschwitz and Birkenau. My Granddad's best friend was briefly imprisoned there during the war and he often spoke to us about it when we were children.

Mentioned it to a friend and she called me a Ghoul so I mentioned it to some other people and I get the impression that people think we're a bit odd.

Just wondering if it's in some way insensitive to visit?

OP posts:
microserf · 20/05/2011 19:50

i have not been, although i think one day i will go.

i don't think she's right at all. you should definitely go.

we should never forget what happened and we should honour the memory of people who suffered and died there.

tethersend · 20/05/2011 19:52

Why should we avoid anything which upsets us? Isn't it just as important to feel trauma?

The trauma felt by visitors is nothing compared to the trauma felt by those who were imprisoned there. But to feel traumatised by visiting is the right reaction.

I went in about '93 before Poland was a popular tourist destination. I will never regret going.

As an aside, I met a French guy there. He was black. As we went round, people looked at him whispered, pointed and one even spat in front of him. He was utterly bewildered by it, as was I.

zukiecat · 20/05/2011 19:56

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
HumperdinkFangboner · 20/05/2011 19:56

Jesus tethers that's shocking.

OP posts:
taylor74 · 20/05/2011 19:56

These places need to be visited to stop us forgetting what happened. I think you should go, I've been and also Anne Franks house. It's history that was never destroyed. It would have been if the nazis had won and no one would have know about this as all evidence would have been lost. it's been preserved for a reason for future generations
Less we forget

Original poster
HumperdinkFangboner · 20/05/2011 20:01

I wonder why so many people are so against visiting them? I know that what happened there was horrific and it'd be very nice to pretend it didn't happen but, like you all say, we need to remember what humans are capable of doing to each other.

My friend said they all need burning down.

OP posts:
MillyR · 20/05/2011 20:01

Tethersend, psychologica trauma means that somebody has been psychologically damaged. We should avoid damaging ourselves. It is not the same thing as people being upset. Different people have different capacities to cope; it is up to the individual to decide if they can cope or not.

tethersend · 20/05/2011 20:06

In twenty years' time there will be hardly any survivors left.

Humperdink, tell your friend that the Nazis agreed with her- burning the camps down was exactly what they tried to do before they left.

tethersend · 20/05/2011 20:09

What I mean Milly, is that we should not avoid experiences because they are not happy ones. I used the word 'trauma' in its loosest sense in response to other posters saying that they found it traumatic.

I was pointing out that to feel traumatised by a visit is a 'healthy' reaction to the horror and reminds us we are human IYSWIM.

zukiecat · 20/05/2011 20:12

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

shmoz · 20/05/2011 20:20

YADNBU.

Go. It is very interesting, harrowing, moving, informative, humbling, shocking - you name it. I believe it's really important that people go and see where these atrocities took place - it really brings it home that these events actually happened.

There was a really good series on the BBC a few years back called Auschwitz, the Nazis and the final Solution - I would even go so far as to say get a copy off Amazon and watch it before you go.

I am shocked that people think you're odd for wanting to go tbh

Original poster
HumperdinkFangboner · 20/05/2011 20:23

I've seen the BBC doc shmoz - it was very good. I'm a bit of a history geek.

OP posts:
saffy85 · 20/05/2011 20:27

You should go. I don't see how visiting such an important place would make you a ghoul. Not the same exactly but my sister visited Anne Frank's secret hideout years ago and said it gave a much better insight to what she went through (until she was found obviously) than reading her diary.

If people stop visiting these places the terrible, inhumane way all those people were treated will be forgotten eventually. They should never be forgotten.

mathanxiety · 20/05/2011 20:32

YANBU.

Going there doesn't mean you are attracted to the horror on any level. You go to remember those who suffered and died there (and elsewhere, as it is such a powerful symbol of evil) so I would call it a pilgrimage of sorts.

Weta · 20/05/2011 20:33

I agree with the others that it is an act of remembrance, and I think it's important.

I visited Terezin in the Czech Republic 15 years ago and it was one of the most profound experiences of my life - particularly as it turned out that our guide had been imprisoned there and so it was amazing to hear from someone who had actually been there at the time.

hugglymugly · 20/05/2011 20:50

It's not at all goulish for you to visit. But maybe your friend and the others you've mentioned it to would find it goulish because it's not something they've thought about very much. It's been in your mind for a long time, and you have a connection via your grandad's best friend, but they might only have had a couple of history lessons in school about the Holocaust and (to their knowledge) have no forebears who were in concentration camps. For them, it might just as well have happened on a different planet.

But if they'd watched some History Channel programmes they might have gained some understanding that there are still vast numbers of people who do have some connection with, or feeling for, those who suffered/died in Auschwitz and other camps. If they ever do find they have such a family connection, that will probably hit them very hard because they'd have to seriously adjust their mindset and that would be very tough for them.

When you get back, answer their questions, no matter how goulish their questions might be, because maybe that's their best chance of making that emotional connection.

hester · 20/05/2011 21:00

I don't think you're wrong to go. Personally I wouldn't: I've visited Sachsenhausen, to lay flowers for a relative who was murdered there, and that was more than enough for me. I do have a slight problem with turning death camps into tourist attractions, and there's no doubt that's what Auschwitz has become, and many of the visitors are not as respectful as you will be. But I don't think you're ghoulish to go, not at all.

posterofagirl · 20/05/2011 21:17

One of the most moving experiences of my life was watching a group of Jewish boys sing as they walked around Auschwitz.
I think everyone should go and it should be upsetting and uncomfortable, it needs to be so we don't allow these things to happen in the future and we pay tribute to the past.

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 20/05/2011 21:20

Definitely not, OP. It's on my list of places to visit also. I think it's going to be terribly upsetting, harrowing and unforgettable. It will be a pilgrimage for me. I too think everybody should visit at some point, if they are able to.

EggyAllenPoe · 20/05/2011 21:23

i think it depends upon you - that is i think some people do visit these places and get some kind of macabre kick from hearing about the terrible things that happened. I very much doubt you are one of them!

i was once told off by a twenty something boy for not having visited the Killing fields in Cambodia - the truth was i would simply find it too upsetting, and i know the history well enough without a visit....i felt like asking him if he had cried whilst he was there, if he took it so seriously ( i doubt that he had) .....but then i did visit a smaller camp in Czch republic and found it parly incongrous (groups of young teens in school uniform with cameras) but also very sad. I liked the quiet of the camp, the time for reflection.

in short, it is what you make of it.

Shakirasma · 20/05/2011 21:24

I would like to go one day. We all hear about the horrors of what happened in such places, but I think visiting makes it more real, rather than a detached story. We must keep it real, to realise the horror and ensure it doesn't happen again.

I have visited ground zero. I imagine that could be called goulish too, but it was a very moving and profound experience. Not particularly pleasant but I am so glad I went

sephrenia · 20/05/2011 21:25

Deesus I too went to Sachsenhausen with university and I agree, it is a humbling experience and it reminds you of all the things you should be thankful for.

OP, you are definitely not being ghoulish.

gateacre1 · 20/05/2011 21:25

YANBU
It is very important that we do not forget what happened
I show my pupils a film about the experiments that were carried out in the name of science at the concentration camps. A lot of the pupils have hardly any awareness of what happened there.

EggyAllenPoe · 20/05/2011 21:25

weta - i think that's where i went, school music tour. the guide said he wished to meet us in a happier place.

herladyship · 20/05/2011 21:30

I would like to go.. although when we visited Anne Frank's house in Amsterdam i cried for about 2 days Blush

i don't consider it 'ghoulish'. certainly no more so than trips to ww1 battlefields etc.

but then one of my 'friends' said that she thought all trips to ww1 battlefields were 'weird' and they 'shouldn't be a tourist attraction' whilst reading her true crime novels