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

[HumperdinkFangboner]

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?

Not at all ghoulish to go, it is essential we remember our history, all of it, even the bad stuff. I went to the Holocaust museum in Berlin and it's terribly moving and sad but I would really like to take the dcs when they're older.

funny you said that herladyship, the friend who thinks I'm ghoulish for going to Auschwitz reads them child abuse memoir books that seem to becoming increasingly popular.

hmmm. i think it is a bit... odd to want to go there on holiday, tbh. i can totally see why a school group would be a good idea, but for adults who already know a lot about the subject... i dunno, it's a bit trainspottery imo. (not saying that the experience won't be a genuinely real emotional reaction to the holocaust that took place at all, just don't get the instinct to go. because you aren't actually in the group of people who is going to forget about it.)

i think it is ghoulish to be honest. there's more than enough documented history about this stuff. they should demolish auschwitz.

No, not ghoulish (I daresay some people might visit for the morbid excitement though...) - I would really like to go. My dad visited one in a different country and always impressed upon me what a humbling experience it was.

I visited Dachau as a pre teen, will forever be imprinted on me...as long as we remember it can never happen again...history is history and we need to make sure we learn from it.

theinet, when you say 'demolish', do you see the land being left or built on?

I'm going to Krakow this summer with half a dozen youth clubbers (I'm a pt youth worker). I'm extremely proud that the first activity they decided on was a trip to Auschwitz. Especially as they don't "want" to go, they feel they should... Nothing ghoulish about it, it's respectful to remember what happened so that we can try to avoid making the same mistakes in the future.

"they should demolish auschwitz" - really?

no, i don't think they should demolish it. and thinking more about it, the OP does at least have a personal connection. but i think i am offended at teh idea that one should go in order to remember, as if i personally (because i will never go there, not in a bizillion years) am likely to let the fact that six million jews were slaughtered just slip my mind for the want of visiting a death camp.

I urge anyone to go to the Holocaust exhibition at the british war museum in south London. It's very interesting and yes, upsetting.

Recommended only for over 14s though. There are lots of video testimonies. Dh and I went on our wedding anniversary last year.

I don't think they should demolish auschwitz at all... don't forget it's the last resting place for millions. The ground is sacred for their families.

Aitch, I don't think anyone's suggesting our generation will forget it, but future generations may well. There needs to be a record, and I think at least one of the camps should be kept as a memorial.

Maybe buy your friend this book.

There were some people there who were not as respectful as they should have been when I was there. But it didn't take away from the experience.

I would have to agree with Aitch in that you don't have to go to remember.

I will never go and I would imagine I have more than one relative who died at one of those camps, although we'll never know for sure as my great grandmother and my grandfather left Romania before WWI and lost touch with the entire family during that war.

In any case, while I can't imagine ever going myself, I do remember the history and will teach my son the history if, for some reason, he doesn't learn about it in school. But I do not think I need to go to remember.

I do not want them to be destroyed. But that doesn't mean I want to visit them either.

There is a National Holocaust Memorial Museum in the UK.

And I agree with Aitch.

A lot of people have experience of real tragedy in their lives right now, or have close friends or family who do. It isn't some over and done thing so that everyone has to go and look around a death camp to know what human rights absuses are.

agreed, definitely, headfairy. and i think it is a huge, formative trip for a young person to make, particularly if the trip is conducted with a view to furthering an educational aim. i just don't get the impetus for going as a fully-formed adult, and dislike the idea that one 'should' go, as has been said numerous times on this thread. i'll never go, because i think it's a bit gawpy. but then i don't even walk over graves, iykwim, out of respect for the people underneath and their loved ones.

Well, it goes beyond 'human rights abuses' doesn't it? It was attempted genocide.

Apologies for waffling. Too much wine tonight and should really go to bed.

I've been to the exhibition in The British War museum, went with the Air Cadet unit I was working with.

My 25yo niece knew NOTHING about the Holocaust, she'd heard the word but that was it. It wasn't taught in her history lessons apparently. I think I only had an half hour lesson on it and if it wasn't for my Granddad's friends connection I'd have learnt little about it too.

Is it covered more in schools now?

I know where you're coming from Aitch, I did feel a bit like that going to the American cemetary above Omaha beach in Normandy, but as a way of understanding history it's incomparable. You cannot understand the sheer scale until you see those lines of white grave stones. I imagine the same is true of Auschwitz.

I don't see the difference between going as an adult or as a teen if you didn't get the formative experience via school, why not take it upon yourself to organise it?