Good Day. Has anyone out there been to Poland to see the WWII death camps? Are they worth visiting?

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danigirlnj

I am living im Poland for 4 years now and can say that it is worth visiting the German concentration camps located in Poland because you can SEE and LEARN many things there.(Almost every High School in Poland organizes a trip to the concentration camps).
In the concentration camps you can see what kind of clothes ,glasses shoes,etc the prisoners wore.You can also see where they ate,slept.Also you have access to see the gas chambers and crematories where prisoners were killed.
There have been many German concentration camps in Poland yet I think you best plan to visit the city OSWIECIM(Auschwitz-Birkenau) which is probably the most "popular"and know camp.
Yet this is not the only place that you can visit about 15kilometers away is a town WADOWICE the birth place of the FIRST POLISH POPE JOHN PAUL THE II KNOWN AS KAROL WOJTYLA.WADOWICE are also loacted near a very big urbanized city called KRAKOW where there is the best known university in Poland the UNIWERSYTET JAGIELLONSKI.
Also about 30kilometers from OSWIECIM is a city called WIELICZKA,where a salt mine is located(it's a nice place,it too is worth visiting).
If you weren't planning to visit the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp I can provide information about the camps located near the Baltic Sea but i would need more time to write about them(and ask if they are even open to tour)
In OSWIECIM you will have an english speaking tour guide so everything will be explained about the camp(I forgot to mention that earlier)
I hope that my knowledge has been useful!In my opinion i think you should visit the WWII camps!
Also if you plan to visit Poland this MAY in a few days the new Pope Benedict the XVI is visting Poland for the first time.
Hope that my information has been useful

travel_o_phile

i've visited a few camps in Europe (Mauthausen in Austria, Buchenwald in Germany, and Auschwitz in Poland) and can say that i utterly agree with kenjarmel that it is a life changing experience. Auschwitz-Birkenau is the hardest to comprehend, which makes it all the more important to visit. not only do you start to gain a greater appreciation for "history" being a real thing, not something that you read about in books and see images of on tv and in movies, but you can start to really understand how the relatively recent past is reflected in the present (think Darfur).

this is real travel to me, when you try to sink deeper in to the being a place and get beyond scratching the surface of art museums, train stations, and "must see" sights. if you can do this i promise this will be a trip that you will never forget.

if you go to Auschwitz you should try to visit Czestochowa to see the Black Madonna at Jasna Gora, regardless of your faith. it represents a significant part of the Polish identity. i remember the town being in the vicinity. maybe on different days though...Auschwitz deserves a focussed visit by itself. if you are traveling with someone you'll probably want to talk after your visit, or maybe just sit silently together for a while.

#@&*?

I have been out there been to Poland to see the WWII death camps They are they worth visiting beacause you get to experience the many creul things Germans did to Poles. I am Polish, so i know how it feels.

agataaleksandra

I agree - a visit there may change your life or at least your attitude towards some issues.
The infamous Oswiecim (Auschwitz) camp is the best known and easiest to get to as it's not far from Krakow.
I don't know if saying you will like it there is a good expression. It is a very solemn and gruesome place. It tells you a lot about history, WWII, holocaust and horrible things one human being is able to do to another. You must be really serious about visiting it to do so.
If you want some information about the museum and what you can expect there go to the following website:
http://www.auschwitz-muzeum.oswiecim.pl/html/eng/start/index.php

DALEX12

I had been to Dachau outside Munich and while the horrific events are well-chronicled and the camp preserved, there was something very clean and sterile that I didn't fully comprehend until my visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau. I was in Poland with the Peace Corps teaching English in a high school east of Warsaw.

I knew this visit was something I wanted to do and while many Poles understood the curiosity factor, I didn't let on to my friends and colleagues where I was going that weekend. It was very strange to live in a place where that experience was still alive in their parents' and grandparents' memories.

I went with another Peace Corps volunteer and we ended up being dropped at a far corner of Birkenau. We crossed a small ravine through the snow and when we came up the other side, the rows and rows of long buildings stretched before us. Many of the buildings were falling apart but stepping inside made you feel like you were there -- the wooden multi-tiered "beds", the sayings painted in Polish and German like "one louse (lice), your death" supposedly encouraging cleanliness. The destroyed crematoriums were now piles of cement blocks looking more oppresive with their coatings of fresh snow. I had a sick feeling in my stomach when I saw the train "station" that I'd seen in films where the tracks come in under the building and into the camp itself. We eventually made it to the actual museum in Auschwitz about a mile away (distance is a guess) and that was where there was lots of historical information and the exhibits called "evidence of the crimes". These are the piles of glasses, toothbrushes, etc. that many people remember about their visit. They have lots of details - list of prisoners, photos, film, etc.

If you go, I recommend that you walk between Auschwitz and Birkenau on the route that many walked to their death (instead of the shuttle). I went again with some visitors to Poland later in the summer and while it still affected me, I'll never forget that snowy walk through the countryside where I contemplated all the souls lost.

lord_dups76

Firts: what do you mean by "worth visiting?" Do you think it is like some crappy american fun park where you get to see big mice chasing giant cats or something? Sorry if I sound a bit hostile but your question sounds a bit funny if you get me.
The death camps are a very horrible place where millions of persons got slaughtered by some crazy man's hatred (I don't mean Bush and Guantanmo bay even if the Nazi regime and the United States of America ressemble each other more every day).
So to answer your question yes they are worth visiting if you want to gain something called education and respect for history. So I would say go there and see what men can do to each other and after that go to Cuba and see what the USA are doing and you will see that it is almost the same only that the USA hasn't started the real genocide yet though throughout their whole history it all they been doing killing others and each others to steal their land...oh yeah and still in the fifties burn black people...so heil bush , eh!!!!!
Education : take as much as you get and NOT from your government

Jim

I have been to Auschwitz near Krakow. I went on a cold winter day, but in full winter gear, and still it was freezing. The temperature indoors was the same as outside, but the WW 2 pictures showed prisoners in light cloth coats like doctors wear. The displays were the articles taken from the victims: 100's of bags piled together; eyeglasses piled up, human hair, canes, crutches and wheelchairs...more than I have ever seen in my life. It truly was a holocaust...

badfish911

i know someone who just went last month...he said it was amazing to see......he took all kinds of cool pics...

mzJakes

If you can get there, go. It's a life changing experience.

dee

I don't think I could hold back my tears if I was ever to visit but I think it should remain to remind us of the horrors of prejudice.

happyjumpyfrog

Yes they are worth visiting but I found them very sad. A lot of schools from the UK take groups to visit.

sonnys_sister

I havent been to any in Poland but I have been to Dachau in Germany. It wasn't very informative, but it was absolutely chilling. I was there on a hot summer day, and when I entered the building where hangings had taken place it was very cold in there. I don't believe in the supernatural, such as ghosts or restless spirits, but that was almost what it felt like, it was a freaky experience.

There are hardly any buildings standing. The barracks had all been torn down, but the foundations were there, so you could see where they were. There was one rebuilt as a model with pictures on the wall showing how crowded it was.

Like I said, it wasn't informative. I think it only serves to satisfy a morbid curiosity.

Hey, Lord Dups - get a grip. Who said the person asking the question is American?

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