My daughter had the most amazing time in Poland. Enjoyed her stay with a family friend and loved Krakow and the festivals and food and stuff……
She came back with many, many stories and lots of photographs. She had presents for everybody – shot glasses for her older brother, packets of strange jellied drinks for her younger brother, lovely amber earrings for my mother and a pipe for my father. Then she presented me with a huge coffee table book which I got quite excited about until I saw the title:-
“Auschwitz – The Residence of Death”
I can hardly bear to open the cover, but as she quite rightly pointed out, I don’t know enough about the details and I should be more aware of this recent part of history.
She learnt a huge amount from her guided tour of Auschwitz. Talked incessantly about what she saw. Described the smell.
She took photos:-
Just horrifying to think that here was the site of the biggest mass murder ever in history. There are rooms piled high with hair. With spectacles. With suitcases. With shoes:-
Unspeakably bad. I’m really not sure I could go there.
August 8th, 2010 at 10:09 pm
Strangely, I’ve just spent a week with my Austrian relatives and part of our morning talk over coffee was the history of my Aunts family, which included being sent to a concentration camp (not sure which one). It also turns out that my Uncles family was in hiding at this time, but also spent time in a camp.
This is such a huge part of history, that should never be forgotten, so that it never happens again.
I’m with you, I’m not sure that I could ever visit Auschwitz. Too much pain and suffering.
August 9th, 2010 at 3:07 pm
To think that if Churchill had had his way in the months leading up to September 1939, or earlier, this wouldn’t have happened. Most people choose not to believe in such evil as long as they possibly can, which for some is forever. The consequences are, of course, disastrous. Still, I don’t think it is coffee table material.
August 10th, 2010 at 12:31 pm
Went 2 years ago to Krackow and went to Auschwitz it was very impressive and so thought provoking but the second part of the tour to Birkenau just made me shiver. There is less to ‘see’ as in objects etc but the place itself is iconic. We arrived not at the front of the building but from the woods at the back by the crematorium so our first proper sight was the railway track going off towards the main building. it was like every documentary I had ever seen, people were so quiet. We were there in June in sunshine what it must have been like in the snow of a Polish winter…….
August 10th, 2010 at 4:35 pm
Yes, she talked about Birkenau too. Just totally horrendous. Lx
August 13th, 2010 at 12:56 am
I could never go, I have read a lot about it all and just bawl my eyes out.