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?

There is information on the museum website about why the allied forces didn't bomb either the camps or the railway lines. I don't think it was that people didn't listen.

there was a program on history recently about this and with the planes they had at the time they couldnt garuntee dropping the bombs with enough accuracey to only hit the train lines and gas chambers and not totally obliterate the whole camp and kill hundreds of people and a lot of why nothing was done was attitudes at the time amwerica and uk did not want floods of refugees coming into thier countries so sadly turned a blind eye to what was happening in europe

I would go if I was nearby.

I've been to Oradour & other places of mass murder & I too found it humbling. Its not ghoulish we have a duty to remember & pay respects.

They allies bombed Monowitz-Buna more than once didn't they? And that was an Auschwitz sub camp.

God my spelling is awful today. Sorry.

what stewie says is exactly why people must go. especially in this day and age where we are subject to so much violence etc on films and tv and people become desensitised and do really believe such things. There are also lots of holocaust deniers out there still.

"I think we owe it to all the survivors and people who lost their lives, not just say 'I have a nice comfortable life and I don't want to know-it was all in the past'. You can go and pay your respects if nothing else."

i actually feel a bit insulted by that, tbh. i think i personally have struggled to express how much more complicated my feelings are than 'i'm alright jack and i don't want to think about it'. actually i am more than a bit upset by that and don't really want to participate in the discussion if that is the reductive tack being taken by those who don't see any issue with going to visit scenes of mass holocaust.

SGM, sorry, but don't know which part of the thread you are referring to - I must have missed part of the discussion. I'm referring to the discussion of why the US did not intervene in the camps during the war. I've not read any posts claiming that people did not know.

Bit saddened by this thread. People should go or not go, according to their best judgement about what counts as commemoration for them.

I have been and it was very informative, but as I said on the other thread, my visit was not remotely as factually or emotionally revealing for me as reading Primo Levi had been. And of course there are many other good authors too.

He wrote such a staggeringly humane account of conditions that were imposed to remove people's humanity. It seemed that he had survived with something intact that most of us lose under vastly less awful suffering.

But he did commit suicide, so I imagine that he was more damaged than his beautiful books suggested.

I don't think there is a rule. Your post just sounds as if there is some major issue about people believing that nobody knew about the holocaust. It wasn't that long ago. I'm sure most of us know or are related to living people who were alive during the war, so it is fairly common knowledge that people knew that it was happening at the time.

So I don't get your rewriting of history remark. Who is rewriting history?

reading Primo Levi was, for me, an absolutely shattering experience as a young girl.

young teen, more accurately.

i think it must be hard for germans and think we should move on.

the world still goes on killing

I was thinking about it from a UK perspective, not a wider European one.

Many of those in the US who were told by agents of the Polish Government in Exile of conditions in Auschwitz were only too willing to dismiss the reports as wild exaggeration or propaganda designed to force special action on behalf of Poland. Even when more information on Auschwitz found its way to the west, it was not considered a worthwhile target. The information that was coming from the camp was not sufficiently significant to the Allies to warrant examination of the aerial photos that had been taken in the course of reconnaissance sorties over the industrial complex nearby so that two and two could be put together. In 1944, Jewish agencies changed their minds from their initial position that bombing of Auschwitz was ill-advised, but no-one was willing to listen.

Auschwitz was seen by the Allies in the Polish context and in the context of the overall war -- disruption of war materiel manufacture and the destruction of facilities where they were produced was a higher priority than the saving of prisoners. The Monowitz-Buna complex manufactured synthetic oil, rubber and other chemical products and there were plans to construct a chemical warfare industry in the area. Buna was bombed a few times.

A friend of mine recently holidayed in Poland and they went to Auschwitz. Said it was very moving and humbling. It is part of our history and not ghouly.

bipolar it is not a tourist destination in the sense of disney world or the eifell tower it is a memorial center to the horrors of nazi germany and the town of osweichim is right outside the gates so you were so unaffected by your visit there that a burger was more important you are the sort of person who should not have visited the camp and stayed in krakow where all the pretties are and the restaurants including a maccie ds

I have never been to Auschwitz but intend to go at some point. I have read quite a bit about Auschwitz and studied European history at University but I think you can only take in so much from books.

Personally I think everyone, particularly the younger generation, should go there so that they can understand what went on there and how it was allowed to happen so that they can guard against it in the future. it didn't happen that long ago and companies had to build those concentration camps and people had to staff them - it wasn't the work of one mad man.

I intend to take my son when he is older. He's only 3 god bless him but when he's old enough, I will take him.

suebfg the original brick buildings were there as they were built for the polish army beore the war the original huts at camp 2 were stables for the polish army horses and as the camp expanded it was the prisoners/inmates who built those and the staff were ss germans, sympathetic albanians, rumanions, poles etc, and people ont realise that th reason hitler picked poland for so many of the camps was its central position for transport and latent anti semetic stance to begin with after the war many jews who tried to return to poland were killed by poles or driven out of thier home villages by poles who had aquired thier houses and possessions

I teach the Holocaust. Yes, you should go. No, it isn't ghoulish.

As for the "We didn't know what was going on" brigade, I thought this was fairly feasible till I saw how close Auschwitz was to the village - ie, just over the road.