Treading on Hallowed Ground (Auschwitz)

Member Name: DreamerHelen

Product:	Auschwitz
Date:	07/08/09 (36 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Never Forgetting

Disadvantages: That People Are Capable of that in the First Place

This place is simply breathtaking in terms of the sadness, the loss and the everlasting Message of "We Will Not Forget".

I went on an Organised Tour from Krakow. It took about an hour and a half to get to Auschwitz where we could get out and stretch for a few minutes before beginning the Tour itself.

To set the scene, I had always been fascinated by 2nd World War History and in particular the Holocaust. I went there in February 2007, so it was cold.

Seeing the sign when you first walked in made me take a deep breath and prepare myself for what was to come and what I would see and feel.

There are other reviews that describe this Place in details - I cannot. But what I CAN do is tell you and ask you to treat it with respect. I found it abhorrant that people were taking photographs as if they were at a nice beach, waving and smiling in front of the camera.

I felt a huge amount of respect on entering what had been the Gas Chambers - You are asked not to take Photo's here as a mark of respect and you will find that the level of conversation is slim to zero at that point.

Auschwitz Two/Birkenau - There is less to see there, however I found it somehow more moving. The Train Tracks that go right inside the Camp so the Prisoners never had a chance. The Huts that made up their "living quarters", desolate and empty but somehow gave me more of an
impression of what living through that was like.

I'm not sure if I will ever go again, but it is so worth going if you have never been - Go to see, go to remember and go to never forget!!

Summary: A Tearful memory