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DESTINATION: Auschwitz

kilgore said:
To be honest we had the opposite experience as thought we were really rushed around with a guide. Plus our guide was "training" I think and pretty soon realised from the numerous books I've read I knew more than she did!
It's a place for contemplation not a tourist attraction.
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I suppose it's just luck, like anything you have bad and good experiences. I would not fault the guide we had. She knew everything and let us stay as long as we wanted even though the place had shut and we were the last to leave on the whole site, it was pitch black outside not another person in sight. The only thing that was bad on our tour was the fucking ignorant disrespectful wankers in our party laughing and joking and asking stupid questions. They even fucked off half way through.

Another thing that was sad to see was all the graffiti from visitors by the cell where the prisoner carved/drew a picture of Jesus.

It might have been mentioned already but I recommend a book called Eyewitness Auschwitz by Filip Müller if anyone hasn't read it.


http://www.amazon.co.uk/Eyewitness-...2714/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1300745831&sr=8-1
 
I did it without a guide and I feel I made the best choice. Granted I went with a Pole who was able to give anecdotes and little stories here and there but still, I feel its the sort of place where you should be able to do it how you want and go and see the different parts according to your preference.

Pretty much everyone I know has done it without a guide and they all didn't have any regrets.

They also charge more for a guide. And to be honest, as you go around you are able to pick up bits and pieces from guides telling to stories to their allocated groups so you can just listen in if you want.
 
soulsaver said:
I suppose it's just luck, like anything you have bad and good experiences. I would not fault the guide we had. She knew everything and let us stay as long as we wanted even though the place had shut and we were the last to leave on the whole site, it was pitch black outside not another person in sight. The only thing that was bad on our tour was the fucking ignorant disrespectful wankers in our party laughing and joking and asking stupid questions. They even fucked off half way through.

Another thing that was sad to see was all the graffiti from visitors by the cell where the prisoner carved/drew a picture of Jesus.

It might have been mentioned already but I recommend a book called Eyewitness Auschwitz by Filip Müller if anyone hasn't read it.


http://www.amazon.co.uk/Eyewitness-...2714/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1300745831&sr=8-1
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God that must have been eerie being in the dark there? There were a few tossers on our trip as well although they got put in their place very quickly when some bloke went right up to them and told them to think about where they were and to show some respect. Think it's like I mentioned people treat it like just another tourist "attraction".
 
kilgore said:
God that must have been eerie being in the dark there? There were a few tossers on our trip as well although they got put in their place very quickly when some bloke went right up to them and told them to think about where they were and to show some respect. Think it's like I mentioned people treat it like just another tourist "attraction".
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It was very eerie. It was October so it wasn't too late but I think it had been shut for over an hour when we left. Just by walking through in the dark made it an even more sobering experience and made it seem 10 times as bad as it did in daylight if that doesn't sound too daft. I see what you mean about the tourist aspect, some people have no interest in it other than to say "I've been".

To be honest we didn't realise the time and how much longer we had stayed until we seen the place was deserted. It only dawned on us then that we had to find a way get back to Krakow. Luckily there is a hotel just on the road nearby (fuck knows why) and they ordered us a taxi. The unbelivable thing was that they had a lifesize cardboard cut out of a man pointing to the right towards the carpark in exactly the same pose of the Nazis in one of the pictures at the place where they chose who would be gassed and who would be prisoners when they got off the trains. I hope it was/is an unfortunate coincidence but didn't look like it.
 
Anyone else find it really weird that it was situated on a main road with businesses/houses/cafes all around it? I just had a mental picture that it would be i the sticks somewhere (like Birkenau was) but I was shocked when we pulled up beside it.
 
Went in February 2007, very eerie, first thing that struck me was how small the Arber Macht Frei gates were at the entrance to Auschwitz 1. Odd thing to say but from the old films etc I was expecting something around the same size as the train entrance to Birkenau.

Whole camp was very disturbing, Block 11 especially so, as referred to earlier the standing cells were horrific, they cut away part of the side of one so you could see the actual space four prisoners had to stand in all night. claustrophobia at it`s worst.

Birkenau was just horrible, went up into the watchtower above the train entrance and the size of the place is what hits you.

Had a guide and she told us when they liberated the camp there were thousands of 'tickets' where the trains unloaded. Apparently the germans used to give some of the better off victims these tickets to prove they were leaving a 3,4,5 bedroom house etc in their home country. They were told that they were to present these tickets at their destination and they would be given a home of similar size as part of their resettlment. Obviously when they jumped down from the train they realised what was about to happen and dropped the tickets.

For the fella who asked what else is worth looking at try the salt mines, absolutely unbelievable, full size churches complete with altars and stations of the cross carved into the walls and what looks like tiles on the floor that has been carved into the salt. Took three lads 60 years to carve the main church 1000 feet ( I think) underground in their spare time.
 
Went there

many years ago with a mate who's relatives were killed there. We went back a few years ago and I took these photo's

http://stretfordender.myphotoalbum.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=album16


During our 2nd visit some twat from down under was making jokes about jews etc and my mate punched him and got a couple of good kicks in before we could drag him away.

BTW Take no notice of the buy tab. The web site puts that on all photo's.
 
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we can only imagine the fear in which these people lived. that standing cell is one of the cruelist things i have ever heard described.

i read recently that they tied a man's hand behind his back at the gallows and dropped him, thereby dislocating his shoulders. in other words his arms would have been above his head, in line with the rest of his body. i will never understand how there were so many people who could be so evil. did any soldier have any ounce of sympathy and end a victim's suffering by shooting him.

it is amazing how anybody could have survived that. what hope did they have? im sure i would have wanted to be shot and end my sufferring.
 
soulsaver said:
Another thing that was sad to see was all the graffiti from visitors by the cell where the prisoner carved/drew a picture of Jesus.
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Sad to see, and that cell is now permanently shut with a glass window to look through, i assume because of that graffiti

There was also shitloads of carvings into the wood round the inside of the doorway of the first block on the right as you walk from Crematoriums 3 and 4 down the train tracks

Not as you may expect, but stuff like "Gaz woz ere USA 05"

I watched the documentary by that young yank revisionist yesterday, its on youtube. I wondered how he gets away with so openly questioning it all in front of people and giving the female guard a hard-time in the Gas Chamber of Auschwitz 1


kilgore said:
God that must have been eerie being in the dark there? There were a few tossers on our trip as well although they got put in their place very quickly when some bloke went right up to them and told them to think about where they were and to show some respect. Think it's like I mentioned people treat it like just another tourist "attraction".
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You must be able to go to Birkenau at any time you like going by the way we went in, imagine going there alone on a cold winters night:eek:
 
went there last year in october,got an aushwitz tour ticket for approx £15 this included transport and a very good polish guide whom knew all you needed to know about aushwitz/berkeneau.....go to the square where the statue of GRUNWALD is near the castle,coaches leave there regular .
 
mufc77 said:
we can only imagine the fear in which these people lived. that standing cell is one of the cruelist things i have ever heard described.

i read recently that they tied a man's hand behind his back at the gallows and dropped him, thereby dislocating his shoulders. in other words his arms would have been above his head, in line with the rest of his body. i will never understand how there were so many people who could be so evil. did any soldier have any ounce of sympathy and end a victim's suffering by shooting him.

it is amazing how anybody could have survived that. what hope did they have? im sure i would have wanted to be shot and end my sufferring.
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thats because the side that wins the war, is the one which tells the story
 
mufc77 said:
we can only imagine the fear in which these people lived. that standing cell is one of the cruelist things i have ever heard described.

i read recently that they tied a man's hand behind his back at the gallows and dropped him, thereby dislocating his shoulders. in other words his arms would have been above his head, in line with the rest of his body. i will never understand how there were so many people who could be so evil. did any soldier have any ounce of sympathy and end a victim's suffering by shooting him.

it is amazing how anybody could have survived that. what hope did they have? im sure i would have wanted to be shot and end my sufferring.
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Lived in Poland for a while, met so many with stories passed down that a human would find hard to understand.

We were due to go paintballing one weekend for a second time with a few good heads from a company there. Asked Marek in the pub on the Friday if he was coming / looking forward to it.

Said it was his mother's birthday the following day, he couldn't make it. His mother had escaped death by running into the woods as a five year old, when the Nazis came through her town ( Polish / Belarussian border ) and dug up the street. They then filled it with people, hammered wooden boards on top of them and then drove their tanks over.

Apparently she still sees the blood squirting into the sky.
 
lkfc99 said:
thats because the side that wins the war, is the one which tells the story
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Indeed, some Germans didn't know for decades. I've seen some break down when seeing what their forefathers did, it brings it home when those in their fifties or so ( who thankfully live in a completely different world now for the most parts ) can see their fathers as the ones committing such atrocities....
 
BigJimH said:
Indeed, some Germans didn't know for decades. I've seen some break down when seeing what their forefathers did, it brings it home when those in their fifties or so ( who thankfully live in a completely different world now for the most parts ) can see their fathers as the ones committing such atrocities....
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I meant that had Germany won the war, the allies would now be regarded as evil, blood thirsty monsters and Winston, as a name, would be socially unacceptable. However we won, so only our side of the story lives on.
 
BigJimH said:
Lived in Poland for a while, met so many with stories passed down that a human would find hard to understand.

We were due to go paintballing one weekend for a second time with a few good heads from a company there. Asked Marek in the pub on the Friday if he was coming / looking forward to it.

Said it was his mother's birthday the following day, he couldn't make it. His mother had escaped death by running into the woods as a five year old, when the Nazis came through her town ( Polish / Belarussian border ) and dug up the street. They then filled it with people, hammered wooden boards on top of them and then drove their tanks over.

Apparently she still sees the blood squirting into the sky.
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fucking hell :eek:

desmond said:
mufc77 said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54aJHSXF1YQ

By the way, i meant to say Guide not Guard
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cheers desmond
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lkfc99 said:
I meant that had Germany won the war, the allies would now be regarded as evil, blood thirsty monsters and Winston, as a name, would be socially unacceptable. However we won, so only our side of the story lives on.
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yeah, I knew what you meant. Wouldn't have been Winston the scapegoat, more 'Uncle Joe' and Stalinism though I think.
 
BigJimH said:
yeah, I knew what you meant. Wouldn't have been Winston the scapegoat, more 'Uncle Joe' and Stalinism though I think.
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Apologies. Yes you're probably right
 
Has anyone been before? Who did you go with? I'm thinking about going in the next couple of months
 
Hand_In_Glove said:
Has anyone been before? Who did you go with? I'm thinking about going in the next couple of months
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My Grandad died at Auschwitz. :(



He fell out of the watchtower :eek:
 
I've been, got bitten to fuck by midgies, came back looking like a golf ball I had that many lumps on me.
 
I'm a bit suspect about people planning a trip to these places. However, if you're in the vicinity, it should be done. I went there many years ago for this very reason - I was near enough to have no excuse.

It will depress you. I don't mean it will make you a bit fed up, I mean it will have an effect on you that can only be described as being depressed. Pressed. De. Pressed. This is what man can do to fellow man.

Yes, go. If you are anywhere nearby, go. But be prepared for how it will make you feel.
 
Hand_In_Glove said:
Has anyone been before? Who did you go with? I'm thinking about going in the next couple of months
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Well worth going, but be you will not want to go a second time. Very educational about the Polish respective of the war and how War Camps were run. Auschwitz is split into two parts. Auschwitz 1 is mainly original and has the most erie atmosphere about it that I have ever witnessed. Auschwitz 2 was at least 75% destroyed by the Nazis and has very little there to see to be honest.
Given my time again I would go to Auschwitz 1, but not Auschwitz. But given I have already been it's not a place I would really want to return to.
 
Thanks for the serious replies. Is it worth booking to go to Krakow then finding a tour there? Or booking it all with a company here.
 
Hand_In_Glove said:
Thanks for the serious replies. Is it worth booking to go to Krakow then finding a tour there? Or booking it all with a company here.
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No problem.
 
Lad I know went there in the late 80s after watching England away.

He said it was the most humbling episode of his life.

I also remember him saying that birds kept their distance from flying over the site and other assorted wildlife kept away also. Tad strange, but there you go.
 
Paninaro said:
Lad I know went there in the late 80s after watching England away.

He said it was the most humbling episode of his life.

I also remember him saying that birds kept their distance from flying over the site. Tad strange, but there you go.
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Bollocks.
 
I wasn't prepared to argue as I wasn't there.
 
Very, very eerie place. I'd take the opposite view having been there four times. I would visit Birkenau, the big site, as you get a full appreciation of the scale of the slaughter when you arrive at the camp.
The Auschwitz barracks in the town (referred to as Auschwitz 1) is a partially reconstructed camp/museum and has many artifacts but no sense of scale.

We flew into Krakow with Easyjet and hired a taxi-minibus to ferry us about. Go in January/February as it's freezing which keeps the numbers down and if you go early enough before 11am you'll have the place to yourself. You just stroll around the huge camp down to the destroyed crematoria and in and out of the barracks.

If you can visit Schindler's factory in Krakow and the Jewish cemetery in Oswiecim, the town name changed to Auschwitz by the Germans, two very poignant memorials.
 
Paninaro said:
I also remember him saying that birds kept their distance from flying over the site and other assorted wildlife kept away also. Tad strange, but there you go.
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I found the same at SACHSENHAUSEN just outside Berlin.
 
visited while on a stag do a few years ago. Very humbling, but still managed to get out to all the titty bars in the evening.
 
Going here in a few weeks. Am I right in thinking you need to be there before 10am if you want to look around without a guide?

Looking at getting train from Krakow. What are they like? Do they have any facilities on board as there's some elderly people in our party?
 
I visited for a day during a recent Euro 2012 trip to Krakow. I took the train to Oswiecim, and walked from there. The walk took around 25/30 minutes. You can obviously get a cab if you want.

As others have said, it is extremely humbling and moving. I agree with the poster that mentions Birkenau as somehow being more affecting. It all struck me much more there, the sheer ugly vastness and bleakness of the place. You can see old photographs, and the place hasn't really changed. It's incredible really.

A quick point, and I hope it doesn't sound trite. You can't bring food into the place, and there's nothing really to buy there. So if you can, eat a meal or something substantial beforehand.

Also, go to Schindler's Factory if you can, well worth a visit.
 
Is Krakow decent?

Really want to visit Auschwitz but every one I ever mention it too doesn't seem too bothered about it, so I think the key to getting people to come with me would be to try and sell Krakow to them.
 
Keenan Cahill said:
Is Krakow decent?

Really want to visit Auschwitz but every one I ever mention it too doesn't seem too bothered about it, so I think the key to getting people to come with me would be to try and sell Krakow to them.
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top place...kazimierz jewish district has some mint bars and restaurants. it is cheap as well - you wont struggle to find £1 a pint as long as you are not on the main square, even the main irish pub called the irish embassy has pints of zywiec for £2
 
Keenan Cahill said:
Is Krakow decent?

Really want to visit Auschwitz but every one I ever mention it too doesn't seem too bothered about it, so I think the key to getting people to come with me would be to try and sell Krakow to them.
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Tag it on to somewhere else. I'm going to Krakow for 3 nights and Berlin for 3 nights. £260 all in. Staying in some nice places too not a shitty hostel
 
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