I had long dreamed of visiting Auschwitz. In fact, the entire reason behind wanting to go to Poland in the first place was so I could visit the former Nazi concentration camp.
You see, I’ve forever had a strange fascination with the history of the Holocaust. As a child I read every book I could get my hands on that related to the event, did projects about Anne Frank at school, and planned trips to visit sites in countries I’d barely heard of. It might seem strange that a 10 year old would be so interested in an event where millions of people were killed, but I was.
So I’d always wanted to visit Auschwitz, the place that represents the horrors of the Holocaust like no other. I wanted to visit Auschwitz to see, to feel, to learn. I wanted to pay my respects to those whose lives were ended or forever changed.
I’ve visited other so called “dark history” sites before- the Killing Fields in Cambodia, Seodaemun Prison in Seoul, and Dachau Work Camp outside Munich. The visits had been somber. I had held back tears. I wandered the grounds alone or with friends. I could learn and pay my respects to those who had suffered in the way that I chose.
Visiting Auschwitz couldn’t have been more different.
I arrived at Auschwitz in the morning to find crowds of people waiting to be sorted into groups outside the entrance. From August to October it is required that visitors join a guided tour if they arrive at Auschwitz I between 10 am and 3 pm. While I’m not a fan of guided tours, had I hoped this would provide some added insight to the day.
After being assigned a group, I was handed a headset and we were on our way. Our guide, who seemed extremely uninterested in the whole thing, led us into the camp. Maybe because I’ve read so much about the event or maybe because the US teaches the Holocaust every year as part of its history curriculum, but I found most of what the guide said throughout the day to be simple facts that I already knew. Nothing further.
We entered the first block, which had been turned into a sort of museum, and were quickly ushered through will the guide gave us a quick rundown of the facts. We continued to walk through these blocks, some filled with the luggage of people brought to Auschwitz from all over Europe and other with the eyeglasses of those who never left, without any time to stop, look, or thing. One tour group in front of another, weaving our way through the blocks.
I listened and I looked and I felt nothing.
The tour ended. I ate some zurek in a cafeteria next to the car park. I thought about what I just saw. Th place I’d just been. The things that had happened there.
I felt disappointed, a strange way to feel after a visit to a place like this. It wasn’t disappointment, though, in what I saw. It was disappointment in the way it was handled. I was disappointed that I hadn’t had time to read the placards and look at the pictures and absorb. I was disappointed that I didn’t have time to feel the depth of what had occurred here. I was disappointed that it felt like a well choreographed dance rather than a visit to site where some of the most horrific acts ever committed had taken place. I was disappointed in the other visitors who were taking selfies or constantly snapping photos.
The visit to Birkenau was better, in the way a visit to a concentration camp could be better. You could freely walk around the grounds. The blocks hadn’t been converted into mini-museums. It was easier to get an idea how horrible things had been, how something like this should not happen again.
Still, though, there was a sense of commercialization. Of a sort of theme park effect. Am I wrong to expect that others treat these type of places with a sense of respect and dignity? Why would you even want a photo of yourself smiling in front of a train that carried Jews from Hungary to their death in Poland?
While Auschwitz may not have been what I expected, I do still think it is a necessary trip.
Genocide was not ended in 1945. Since then there have been genocides in Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda, and Darfur, to name a few.
We need these reminders. We need to visit sites that make us uncomfortable. We need to stop these things from happening.
I visited Auschwitz in March, which was handy because it meant I didn’t have to join a tour group (though you can if you want to). My experience was very different to yours because of it. Walking around at your own pace, staring at the exhibits without a group in the way, and just reading the signs in detail… I was so cold though… it was freezing, colder than all the rest of Poland – even colder than Zakopane I felt at the time.
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Yeah, from what everyone has said it seems that visiting at a time where you don’t have to take a tour would have been the way to go to really get to take it all in.
How disapointing in such a strange way. That´s awful that they don´t do as much as they could to make people learn and feel from visiting. I always imagined visiting Auschwitz would be so heavy and emotional!
I remember the killing fields outside Phnom Penh and that was a rough day. Ugh, makes me sad and emotional even thinking back to it!
Jessica of Curiosity Travels recently posted..Rome Through Gelato
Ugh yeah, the Killing Fields were emotionally disturbing but a good example of how to do dark tourism well, I think. They were educational and profound.
That’s a pity that you were disappointed with the visit, it has somewhere I have always wanted to visit too, and as you said I think it is important that people continue to see these sites.
I’ll be interested to see how I feel upon visiting the Killing fields in a few months…
Lisa – Wee Wanders recently posted..Travelling to Thailand…The Countdown Begins
The Killing Fields are brutal. It is a worthwhile trip (your learn a lot and it is done well), but prepare to feel a lot for the whole day.
I went on the tour when visiting Auschwitz – I seem to remember it’s mandatory – but I spent a lot of time walking around the site by myself. I think it was integral to my experience as I had the time to absorb the enormity of what had happened there and reflect in my own personal space, without headsets or throngs of other tourists. When I reached Birkenau it was almost the end of the day so there was nobody around, and I felt terrible as soon as I walked through the gate. That place has a whole other energy, and it’s a lot more potent.
I agree, I think there’s a certain level of commercialism present but it’s very hard to avoid it to be honest. Opening a place like Auschwitz up to public viewing immediately invites the ability to take photos and smile and joke. It’s a coping mechanism as much as anything else. I remember seeing two young boys chasing each other around on the grass, a few steps away from the gas chambers, and their parents were fine with it. I was a bit affronted at first but then figured that at least they’d brought their sons there to see the place. Even if they didn’t understand what it meant yet.
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Oh, I agree that it is inevitable. It’s just a shame. I think that visiting in the evening or winter when you don’t have to take a tour would have been the better option for me. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize this until too late.
I agree that it can be a coping mechanism, but I also think there is a fine line between making yourself comfortable and being disrespectful. While children (and even teenagers) don’t understand this, the adults that I saw behaving in poor taste do and I hold them accountable.
What a shame you had such an unfulfilling experience there. It certainly seems like the place you would need your own time and space to understand and take it all in. It’s always annoying when places with such potential are ruined by becoming to commercialised.
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It is annoying, but probably inevitable. I think visiting when you aren’t forced to take a tour would have been a better option for me, unfortunately I didn’t realize it at the time.
I have a hard time even thinking about my trip to Auschwitz. I was only 19 but I felt like it taught me or at least reminded me details I’d forgotten. It was a rainy miserable day… I can remember feeling disgusted by the town being so close & the thoughts of the world doing nothing… blah… I don’t regret visiting though.
Rachel of Hippie in Heels recently posted..Complete Guide to the Himalaya’s Hippie Town, Manali
Yeah, it’s definitely not a fun place but is worth a visit if you’re in the area.
I visited Auschwitz on a school trip about ten years ago. While we did have enough time to look at everything properly it still felt weird. It probably had something to do with the fact that it was a really nice and sunny day and the buildings actually looked pretty with the blue sky. The next day though we went to Birkenau, it was grey and rainy and somehow left a much bigger impression on all of us – even without the suitcases and buttons.
I still tell people to go and see Auschwitz but it’s probably best to do it on your own if you can and avoid crowds. I remember that most of the students I went with were irritated by some other groups who kept acting as if it was an amusement park.
Yeah, it is probably a place that will leave you feeling weird no matter what. I definitely thing it is better to go in winter or later in the day when you can tour independently.
Sorry to hear that. Your experience must have been really disappointing. The tour really sucks like most of them. I’ve never been there, but I thought this place would be more different :-(.
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Yeah, it was disappointing. If you ever go try to go in winter or late afternoon when you don’t have to take the tour!
I just posted about my own Auschwitz experience but it was very different – perhaps because it was 10 years ago. I wish I could send you back in time and come on my tour with me! It would have been all you expected. (Not good. But very moving). So sorry that your experience wasn’t different.
Amanda Kendle recently posted..Why I’m glad I visited the Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps
It seems that it must have changed recently from what a lot of people have said. Such a shame. The forced tours really do a disservice for a lot of people, I think.
I don’t think I’ll ever understand people who take pictures at sites like this, especially selfies. I don’t know how you didn’t smack them.
Sorry that your experience was disappointing like this. What a strange way to be taken through the site. You’d have thought that the tour guides would know that most visitors want to go to reflect and really take everything in. I agree that it’s one of those places that’s important to visit though. As I said earlier in your post about memorials, we need that reminder so that we can learn from our mistakes and move forward.
Ceri recently posted..Happy Days to Curb the Sad Ones
Yeah, the whole thing was a bit mind boggling but I am still glad I went.
Really interesting, Amanda. I had no idea it was so commercialized, although it’s not surprising considering how many things are going that way now. I suppose you’d have to wonder what might happen if these hoards of people were all wandering around on their own? You’d hope they would be respectful, but if they can’t even do that with a guide, imagine how they would be if they weren’t on a tour.
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That is also very true, though I think a lot of these people wouldn’t have visited had it not been for the huge tour buses bringing them in. I guess such is life though!
I can totally understand where you are coming from–there were people (well, one person) at the Killing Fields snapping smiley photos in front of the tree (you know which tree when you’ve been there), and it was just….disheartening. I’ve always wanted to go to Auschwitz, so this post is a great heads up (maybe go in March/the winter it seems)? I’m sorry you that the experience you did, but hopefully for those that want to ponder and wander in reflection, this will serve as an important fyi.
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Yeah, I definitely saw some bizarre behavior at the Killing Fields as well. If you go to Auschwitz, definitely go in winter or late afternoon when you don’t need a guide!
I still remember when I visited Dachau years ago, the experience was so different from what you experienced at Auschwitz..
Our school had those obligatory trips to Dachau during 7th grade, all 7th graders went there in buses. We were the only group there, and expect for us and a few solo visitors the place was mostly empty. That one trip traumatized me a lot, all of us were no older than 14 (most of us 13) and the tour guides kept adressing us directly as if we were the ones who had commited those horrible crimes..as a German, I learned about the Holocaust during almost all history lessons I’ve ever had, we barely talked about anything else in history class. and even though i already knew all those facts, going there as a 13 years old, being told by the tour guides exactly where people where killed (and them showing us blood stains and belongings of the people there) and being adressed so directly all the time, it was horrifying. It left no time to think, no time to pay respect and it as just really really scary. They even made us go inside one little cell, apparantly used as a punishment, that was so tiny you couldn’t sit upright, or lay down, you could just crouch. Dachau surely leaves a strong impression on the visitors, as they’re allowed to walk around freely and it’s not as commercialized as Auschwitz seems, but as a mandatory trip for 7th graders, it was just traumatizing for me.
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I can definitely see how Dachau would be traumatizing for a young person! I went as an adult and found it deeply disturbing.