Auschwitz - how to get there?

Another option would be Sachsenhausen on the outskirts of Berlin

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sachsenhausen_concentration_camp

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This is where they used to have the gallows. Everyone was assembled and had to watch the executions or be shot. On Xmas this is where they put the tree up:eek


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Quick update:
Daughter is now going to Auschwitz with a couple of schoolmates so my trip may be nerarer to october half term now :blast
 
Used to be a lot easier in the old days. You just hopped onto a train.
 
Re Bergen Belsen I will post some pictures later

BTW - the visitor centre was only build when Reagan said he wanted to visit... Kohl was spurred into action ...

My step grandfather was amongst the first British troops to enter Belsen and I only saw his (truly horrific) photos after he died :eek
 
For Me its

can't see what the attraction is tbh, each to their own

Lest we forget

Makes me appreciate the sacrifices that have been made to enable us be free today

Think we all need to be given a jolt of reality occasionally
 

Having left Auschwitz only a couple of hours ago I find most of this video all the more powerful than it might otherwise have been. That's not to suggest it doesn't deserve recognition, or that it has no 'real' power upon the viewer, on the contrary, quite the opposite!

Perhaps to make my point clearer , I arrived at Auschwitz II this morning , about 08:30hrs, before anybody else was on the scene, other than the odd security staff here and there.
I had freedom of the site and no distractions whatsoever.
Prior to entering the gate, and after having parked up in the car park opposite, I took the short walk along the rail track to be able to view the entrance head on. As I walked along the track, away from the entrance I felt wave upon of wave of goose bumps crawling across my skin. I felt this occur perhaps a dozen times before it faded and I turned about to take some photo's, before heading into the grounds.
I was alone and had nothing but time to be able to absorb the enormity of this tragedy, the scale of the operation and the silence in the air.

After I had finished here I decided to hire a guide and restart the day at Auschwitz I. As powerful an occasion this is/was , I can't help but feel a guide takes something away from the personal experience of a visitation here.

In Auschwitz II there is nowhere you can't go alone, whereas Auschwitz I requires a guide , or you're not going in! It seemed wrong and, perhaps disrespectful toward history, to not take the guide opportunity of Auschwitz I. Afterall, this is where you will get a modern interpretation of what took place here, an interpretation that is going to be pretty well close to actual events.
On this guide you will also get to see many of the photo's previously mentioned in this thread, as well as the belongings , and more. Reading numbers in a book is one thing, seeing what these numbers represent in terms of solid objects is quite something else!

After this visit I continued with the guide to revisit Auschwitz II.

Being surrounded by so many other people, sharing the guide, and so many guide groups, is without doubt a distraction. I feel, to quite a high degree, it also desensitises (sp?) the individual experience. Being solitary permits 100% focus. This is not to say one way is any better than the other , or any more 'right' , but I feel for such a visit this really is best served as a personal experience , cold!

'Couples', on my tour experience would talk amongst one another, some would pass a 'joke', some would find humour in something that perhaps wasn't even related to this day, some would share mobile text viewing etc etc , but nobody on this tour absorbed this day 100% , it would be close to impossible to do when in company, I would suspect!

My personal experience would encourage me to suggest that if people are going in a group of perhaps 3,4 ,5, 6 bods then take the experience in Auschwitz II first, not Auschwitz I, as recommended. Split yourselves up and tour the site making sure you have nobody next to you, or within ear shot, and absorb this occasion alone , and meet up again after 'your' individual tour at the main entrance/car park.
Whatever you feel inside will only occur the once , and it will be on your very first visitation.

Perhaps then go to Auschwitz I and take the full tour so as to join all the dots.

By the time I left I felt a relief of the punishment upon the senses and at last the sorrow, the shame and disgust of being part of the human species could subside to a level I was more familiar with prior to my experience.

This is one of those experiences that will stay with you for the rest of your life, respect it ... and feel it!
 
All being well this is a rough route of the way i will be going mid May to mid June next year, overnight ferry from Harwich, then a 3 night stop off in the Harz mountains to visit natzweiler-struthof concentration camp, then onto Colditz, from there to Prague for 2 or 3 nights, then onto Krakow for 3 nights, 3 nights in and around the Tatra mountains, then onto Budapest for a couple of nights, and then onto Linz to visit Mauthausen Concentration Camp, then through Austria to the dolomites for a week and then to Koper in Slovenia to catch the train back to Den Bosch.
the first part of the trip to Krakow is solid the rest will depend on weather and time.
 

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Whatever you feel inside will only occur the once , and it will be on your very first visitation.



By the time I left I felt a relief of the punishment upon the senses and at last the sorrow, the shame and disgust of being part of the human species could subside to a level I was more familiar with prior to my experience.

This is one of those experiences that will stay with you for the rest of your life, respect it ... and feel it!

Couldn't agree more.....And there will be, as you hinted, a different part that 'gets to' different people.....I was fine with the piles of glasses, the room full of hair, the room full of prosthetics and even the re-staged execution post at camp 1.....but I had tears streaming stood in front of the small glass cabinet full of baby clothes and items.......totally choked me up and still does.

We went in as a group, but very quickly scattered as people took in things in different ways and were affected similarly....as you say, a very personal experience.



After Auschwitz we went along the road to camp2 AKA Birkenau...a very different setup and I felt, a lot better for the way it has been left.

I've mentioned my feelings and reaction (disgust) about the fake gas chamber at Auschwitz before and don't want to have Mr Cheese and Mr Zoltan triggered off again, but both camps are intense places that are worth experiencing IMO.

"Lest we forget"........If only people hadn't ! :(
 
The only advice I would give is:

  • Allow a full day. Please don't think you can stroll up at 10:30 and sod off by 3:00. We were waiting at the gates when they opened and were one of the last to leave, and even then we didn't see all of the camps.
  • Do your homework before you go. Read up on the place beforehand - it makes more sense when you get there.
  • Don't be afraid to walkaway from the main "bit" and take the paths / roads. I'm sure there are buildings which most of the visitors never see.
  • Find time for yourself. Eg we kept splitting up and met at a pre-arranged spot about an hour later.
I reckon everyone should go there at least once.
 
I've mentioned my feelings and reaction (disgust) about the fake gas chamber at Auschwitz before and don't want to have Mr Cheese and Mr Zoltan triggered off again, but both camps are intense places that are worth experiencing IMO.

From the official website http://en.auschwitz.org/m/

"Auschwitz I, Crematorium I and the first gas chamber

This object is preserved in an original state to a large degree. Crematorium I operated from August 1940 in a prewar ammunition bunker adapted for its new function. The largest room was a morgue, which was changed into a provisional gas chamber. There were three furnaces for burning corpses in crematorium I, ordered by the camp administration from the Topf and Söhne company, which installed them.
When the gas chambers in Birkenau were going into operation, the camp authorities transferred the mass killing operation there and gradually phased out the first gas chamber. In July 1943, after the completion of the Birkenau crematoria, the burning of corpses in crematorium I ended. The furnaces and chimney were dismantled, and the holes in the roof used for introducing Zyklon B were closed. Two of the three furnaces and the chimney were reconstructed (from original parts), and several of the holes in the roof of the gas chamber were reopened.

Outside the boundaries of the Museum, the railroad siding and unloading platform (the so-called Judenramp or "old ramp") is commemorated. Transports of Jews deported for killing, and also of Roma and prisoners of other nationalities, arrived here from 1942-1944."

The barracks in Birkenau are also a reconstruction and the original chambers are there but partly destroyed.
The only " original chamber " is in Dachau .

If you were so "disgusted", you should have asked for a refund . :rolleyes:

Frankly I found A1 a circus and Disney Land type atmosphere, but you get the point . The guide was quite useless and avoided to answer some questions . The irony of having to pay to get in was not lost on some people , especially Jews .
Birkenau on the other hand is exactly the opposite , Timolgra explained it better than I would .
Picture from the watch tower
 

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Strange how people have different experiences.

I went about 4 years ago, nothing changes much there I'm sure, we had a guide, non Jewish who also pushed the point that a great proportion of the prisoners held in A1 were non jewish political as well as European jews.
We were part of a group of 25 and different parts of the site affected people in different ways, some gasped and cried others blank faces, there were several coach parties of Israeli school kids, queuing up they were like any other kids, noisy and playing around, when they left almost silent, I was told that all Israeli school children have to visit.
Perhaps our guide engaged us differently, I wouldn't call it a Disneyland type experience but they did have to manage a lot of visitors.

Birkenau was more of what I expected in lay out, but not on the sheer scale, the watchtower allows a view of the whole site, most people are aware of the railway tracks and the end of the line where selection took place from films and photos but I found it unnerving to look back towards the entrance, as said in previous posts here you can just walk without a trail of people following.

I didn't realise there was an admission charge, we booked as an excursion from Krakow for about £16.00, there and back in 8 1/2 hours.

We have been to Krakow twice now, each time staying in rented apartments surrounding the Planty, Most residents cant face the 4/5 floors of stairs so there a lot rented out.

2nd visit we made time for the Salt Mines and the Schindler factory which had just opened.

We took one of the electric cart tours, even though the driver was busy sorting out the narration on his ipod plus driving it was a good couple of hours.

Best meals were in the Jewish quarter Kazimierz , we also went on the Nowa Huta tour in Trabants which explained the other half of the city and the communist side, our lunch stop at one the old "peoples" canteens, still selling the beetroot soup and dumplings and other stodge to the locals, we were the only tourists.

There's loads to see and day and night - you'll struggle to fit everything in on a single w/e break though.
 
That's the fella :clap
Looking at the map and description, it also seems to be in Tim's recommended quarter :thumb2



Certainly a memorable place, mostly for the location views and atmosphere, but also because, rather horrifically, I was sharing a room with Greg and he has a habit of walking around with his big :censor: hairy :censor: on display :blast

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. . . . . and has secure parking at the back ISTR:thumb2
 
I stayed in Oświęcim ( near Auschwitz ) at this hotel http://www.hotelgalicja.com.pl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=51&Itemid=118&lang=en the spa is beautiful and reasonably priced . Breakfast is amazing , plus is biker friendly , but in your case is irrelevant:D

I also stayed in Oświęcim at Hotel Adria . It was my eye opener and introduction to the fabulous Polish food, not to mention an introduction to a well earned Tyskie beer or two! First class service in HA. :thumb2
 

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. . . . . and has secure parking at the back ISTR:thumb2

They opened up a big wrought iron gate for us and we wheeled all of the bikes inside, into a covered gallery type alley access area.

Certainly secure, and they were all very friendly.

The restaurant was amusing...not in a good way though.
 
I reckon everyone should go there at least once.[/QUOTE]

My great-grandfather did.
 


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