Something that really left an impression on me was how quickly the general mood of the group I was doing the tour with shifted after entering the camp. At the entrance people were still chatty and eager to get started.
Walking through the exhibitions everyone was dead quiet, just shaking heads and pointing at things. There was this big, tattooed British guy I had been chatting with who kept giving me the most daunted looks. Two Spanish girls had brought sandwiches for lunch and during the break I saw them throw them in the trash. Another guy bursted out crying when we entered the baracks where they the children.
Nothing the guide said was really new to me but it’s so very different reading and watching docus about the holocaust and seeing all that horror first hand… Everyone who went to Auschwitz-Birkenau agreed it’s something worth doing but what you see in that place will truly haunt you forever.
More people need to visit these sites. Anti-semitism is on the rise on the left and right all over Europe.
I’ve watched a lot of testimonies about the Holocaust from survivors; but I never realized the gas chambers were underground. This eerily reminds me of the Tomb of Agamemnon.
Those places are errie, something just wrong about them on a whole different level.
Birds reported to still avoid least one camp, scrape ground in places, it was not rock, it was bone…
Title makes it sound like it’s still operational
I thought all the gas chambers were blown to bits by the nazis, and then the soviets reconstructed some
The second-last thing you saw before death, horrific.
I try to recall the impressions from the school trip there at age 12 (or 13?), and I do not remember much…
Of course, I had read several books on the subject by that time, and watched a number of films and documentaries, so there was not much that I did not already know, but one would probably expect to remember more from the visit…
The most ingrained memory related to the chamber that I have is still watching [**that scene**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRchlFw0OlI) in “War and Remembrance” at age 9 or so. Then again, it’s probably hardly surprising to anyone who saw it in childhood…
Walking into this room, standing in it, felt like someone had laid a soaking blanket on me. I’ve never felt just a heavy presence before.
I visited both Auschwitz and Birkenau in 2019. There is something very dark in those places. Auschwitz is what we expected, absolutely sad place and full of sad memories (Unfortunately, some idiots keep taking selfies smiling…). But Birkenau? Its a total different place… There is a smell of burning there… Just at the main rail entrance you can already note it. We plan on take our children there ehrn they become older enough to understand what those places mean.
I myself haven’t been to Auschwitz, but I have been to Sachsenhausen, Dauchau, and a few other camps around Germany. It honestly is something I think everyone should visit to at least once. We read about genocides in history books. But unless your family has personally affected by one or have been to a camp. I don’t think you can fully comprehend it until you’ve actually visited the sites. Even though it’s been years since I’ve visited Dachau, the site of the wall where they shot and hung prisoners is still etched in my mind.
I visited years ago and it is a rough visit. Enormous piles of hair and shoes from the victims, hallways with pictures of the victims, torture such as the standing cells… and the list could go on and on. I think everyone should see it but just emotionally prepare for it.
10hrs of eye witness accounts of inmates, guards, train drivers and inhabitants of surrounding villages.
One of the most important documentaries ever filmed in my opinion.
That looks foreboding.
Majdanek extermination camp never blew up their gaschamber as they were ordered, because the commander got drunk and shot himself.
So there they have an original one where you can see the scratches on the wall from people clawing at the walls. A very sobering experience.
Edit: [Here](https://collections.ushmm.org/iiif-b/assets/737531) is a picture of it. The blue color is from Zyklon B, which were known to make this color when mixed with oxygen. The color is called “Prussian blue” and is a nickname for Zyk B.
Why would you post this now?
If there were ever a place on this Earth most certainly to be haunted, it’s there.
Haven’t been but I did visit the S-21 (now called Tuol Sleng) prison and the killing fields in Cambodia. Halfway through the day, I was shaking and just went back to my hotel and laid down on the bed and wept. I just couldn’t take any more evidence of the cruelty we are capable of inflicting upon each other.
I’ve seen a lot in my life but that shook me to the core. One of these days, I’ll try to get to Majdanek and Birkenau. Everyone should experience one of these sites in their lifetime – preferably when they are younger so that they learn how to value human life and dignity as they get older.
I saw some people bringing their very young kids to the main camp with the infamous gate. I would guess like 5 year olds or something like that. But how do you explain a place like this to kids that young?
Rwanda, Cambodia, Yugoslavia, Myanmar, China, North Korea, Eritrea….
Genocides are still occuring, but nobody does anything to prevent them.
It’s easy to talk about how horryfying Holocaust was and that Nazism is the worst ideology ever made. But as long as you are buying fridges from China or selling guns to Saudi Arabia, you are a hypocrite.
[deleted]
I’ve seen so many movies and documentaries about the holocaust but can’t remember who’s idea the gas chambers were. Iirc one person is widely credited for the idea.
We should remember that not only Jews died there. Many Poles and many other ethnic groups also died there.
23 comments
Something that really left an impression on me was how quickly the general mood of the group I was doing the tour with shifted after entering the camp. At the entrance people were still chatty and eager to get started.
Walking through the exhibitions everyone was dead quiet, just shaking heads and pointing at things. There was this big, tattooed British guy I had been chatting with who kept giving me the most daunted looks. Two Spanish girls had brought sandwiches for lunch and during the break I saw them throw them in the trash. Another guy bursted out crying when we entered the baracks where they the children.
Nothing the guide said was really new to me but it’s so very different reading and watching docus about the holocaust and seeing all that horror first hand… Everyone who went to Auschwitz-Birkenau agreed it’s something worth doing but what you see in that place will truly haunt you forever.
More people need to visit these sites. Anti-semitism is on the rise on the left and right all over Europe.
I’ve watched a lot of testimonies about the Holocaust from survivors; but I never realized the gas chambers were underground. This eerily reminds me of the Tomb of Agamemnon.
Those places are errie, something just wrong about them on a whole different level.
Birds reported to still avoid least one camp, scrape ground in places, it was not rock, it was bone…
Title makes it sound like it’s still operational
I thought all the gas chambers were blown to bits by the nazis, and then the soviets reconstructed some
The second-last thing you saw before death, horrific.
I try to recall the impressions from the school trip there at age 12 (or 13?), and I do not remember much…
Of course, I had read several books on the subject by that time, and watched a number of films and documentaries, so there was not much that I did not already know, but one would probably expect to remember more from the visit…
The most ingrained memory related to the chamber that I have is still watching [**that scene**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRchlFw0OlI) in “War and Remembrance” at age 9 or so. Then again, it’s probably hardly surprising to anyone who saw it in childhood…
Walking into this room, standing in it, felt like someone had laid a soaking blanket on me. I’ve never felt just a heavy presence before.
I visited both Auschwitz and Birkenau in 2019. There is something very dark in those places. Auschwitz is what we expected, absolutely sad place and full of sad memories (Unfortunately, some idiots keep taking selfies smiling…). But Birkenau? Its a total different place… There is a smell of burning there… Just at the main rail entrance you can already note it. We plan on take our children there ehrn they become older enough to understand what those places mean.
I myself haven’t been to Auschwitz, but I have been to Sachsenhausen, Dauchau, and a few other camps around Germany. It honestly is something I think everyone should visit to at least once. We read about genocides in history books. But unless your family has personally affected by one or have been to a camp. I don’t think you can fully comprehend it until you’ve actually visited the sites. Even though it’s been years since I’ve visited Dachau, the site of the wall where they shot and hung prisoners is still etched in my mind.
I visited years ago and it is a rough visit. Enormous piles of hair and shoes from the victims, hallways with pictures of the victims, torture such as the standing cells… and the list could go on and on. I think everyone should see it but just emotionally prepare for it.
Anyone interested in what it was like in these camps for people should watch the documentary [Shoah](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090015/)
10hrs of eye witness accounts of inmates, guards, train drivers and inhabitants of surrounding villages.
One of the most important documentaries ever filmed in my opinion.
That looks foreboding.
Majdanek extermination camp never blew up their gaschamber as they were ordered, because the commander got drunk and shot himself.
So there they have an original one where you can see the scratches on the wall from people clawing at the walls. A very sobering experience.
Edit: [Here](https://collections.ushmm.org/iiif-b/assets/737531) is a picture of it. The blue color is from Zyklon B, which were known to make this color when mixed with oxygen. The color is called “Prussian blue” and is a nickname for Zyk B.
Why would you post this now?
If there were ever a place on this Earth most certainly to be haunted, it’s there.
Haven’t been but I did visit the S-21 (now called Tuol Sleng) prison and the killing fields in Cambodia. Halfway through the day, I was shaking and just went back to my hotel and laid down on the bed and wept. I just couldn’t take any more evidence of the cruelty we are capable of inflicting upon each other.
I’ve seen a lot in my life but that shook me to the core. One of these days, I’ll try to get to Majdanek and Birkenau. Everyone should experience one of these sites in their lifetime – preferably when they are younger so that they learn how to value human life and dignity as they get older.
I saw some people bringing their very young kids to the main camp with the infamous gate. I would guess like 5 year olds or something like that. But how do you explain a place like this to kids that young?
Rwanda, Cambodia, Yugoslavia, Myanmar, China, North Korea, Eritrea….
Genocides are still occuring, but nobody does anything to prevent them.
It’s easy to talk about how horryfying Holocaust was and that Nazism is the worst ideology ever made. But as long as you are buying fridges from China or selling guns to Saudi Arabia, you are a hypocrite.
[deleted]
I’ve seen so many movies and documentaries about the holocaust but can’t remember who’s idea the gas chambers were. Iirc one person is widely credited for the idea.
We should remember that not only Jews died there. Many Poles and many other ethnic groups also died there.