im going there in july with my school i wonder is it an experiance i will never forgett !?
if youv been can you tell me what it was like
or if you know any thing about the holocaust please tell me im intrested
adam aged 14Www@QuestionHome@Com
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Position:Home>History> Auschwitz tours?Question: Auschwitz tours!? im going there in july with my school i wonder is it an experiance i will never forgett !?
if youv been can you tell me what it was like or if you know any thing about the holocaust please tell me im intrested adam aged 14Www@QuestionHome@Com Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Adam!. I salute you for your desire to learn about this horrific place!. I hope you will, upon your return, try to convey to your schoolfriends the horrors of Auschwitz!. I visited there 3 years ago and, as a student of WW2 for over 30 years I thought I would be prepared for what I saw with compassion and impartiality!. The first part of the tour was Auschwitz I, an ex Polish Army barracks first used to house what the Germans called "enemies of the state"!. These were the intelligensia of Poland and anyone thought capable of leading any kind of resistance to the occupation!. The inmates were forced to work on minimal rations and endure terrible conditions before their almost inevitable death!. One of the last things you will see on that part of the tour is the original gas chamber and crematorium which was used to test the system of industrial scale killing later used by the Germans in so many camps!. As you leave the crematorium you will see the gallows they erected to hang the commandant of the camp after the war!. I am afraid to say that my impartiality had faded by this point and my only thought was that I hoped it hurt when they strung him up!. In the second part of the tour to Auschwitz-Birkenau or Auschwitz II you will see the images that everyone knows from films!. The long railway sidings and the Kommandantur building with the tower over the railway constructed purely for the purpose of speeding people to this labour camp!. You will see the platforms where people were torn from their families before being graded as "fit for work" or to be sent to "special treatment" Those who were fit to work were given any of many tasks around the camp!. This could be anything from constructing neighbouring factories, labouring in those factories, maintenance around the camp or crematorium duties!. When you collapsed from overwork, lack of food, dysentry or any one of numerous epidemics runnign through the camp you too would be sent for "special treatment" Those selected for "special treatment" were usually any children younger than yourself (do you have any younger siblings!?) the old or infirm, ( your grandparents would be likely candidates) anyone looking ill, (remember that some of these people had spent up to a fortnight packed into a train truck designed for 40 men or 8 horses along with maybe 80-100 other people) and anyone who looked like they might have any resistance left in them!. These people would be marched to the shower rooms for disinfection after having ALL their hair shaved off to help combat lice and when they were all packed in and awaiting the cleansing rush of water from the shower heads would see small holes in the roof opened so that their jailers could throw in pellets of Zyklon B which would then give off a gas, slowly suffocating the occupants of the "shower room"!. After all movement in the chamber finished the doors would be thrown open to release the gas and the bodies, which would be piled on top of each other where people had fought to find clearer air high up, would be pulled out using hooked implements by the prisoners on crematorium detail!. This detail would have often included young men of your age who, on many occasions had to pull their own family members out of the chamber before putting them onto specially designed trolleys to take them to the crematorium and push them into the ovens to dispose of the evidence!. Behind the crematoria are ash pits where the final remains were thrown before being colected to be used as fertiliser on the surrounding farms!. Whilst you walk around Auschwitz you will see lots of little bits of white in the wonderfully black soil!. Unlike most areas with this sort of soil the white flecks are not limestone but bits of bone which escaped up the chimney before settling on the surrounding camp!. As we passed back past Auschwitz I we could again see the gallows where they hanged Rudolf Hoss!. At this point if I had seen him standing on a stool with that noose around his neck I would have cheerfully kicked the stool away myself!. This trip will not be a fun day out!. It may well be the most educational trip you undertake whilst at school as well as the most disturbing!. I do not know if you are staying in Poland with your group overnight but I can offer only two pieces of advice!. Firstly!. After visiting this monument to man`s inhumanity spend time with your fellow travellers, enjoy a good meal, preferably in the town square of the beautiful city of Krakow, raise a glass of whatever your teachers will allow you to drink and toast the fact that, eventually, the good guys won and humanity prevailed!. Secondly!. If anyone ever tells you the holocaust never happened, look them in the eye and then tell them the truth of the things you have seen in a place truly deserving of the name "Hell on Earth"!.Www@QuestionHome@Com The Holocaust happened, Hitler may not have been aware of the full extent of the damage caused, the person we think was fully aware of the damage was a guy called Himler!. The thing about Auschwitz that remains in the memory for the longest is the incredible feeling of suffering that went on in that place!. Did Hitler have parkinsons, he was certainly an orator that could pull the crowd to agree with him!. I would also recommend Schindler's List, it's nasty but factual!.Www@QuestionHome@Com I went a couple years ago for my history A level, it wasnt a particularly enjoyable visit, but I definitly feel that it was worth going!. Auschwitz itself has a fairly museum-ish feel, but its very moving!. They've kept things like hair, suitcases, children's clothes etc that they found piled around the place which go quite a long way in helping you comprehend what exactly happened!. However we then went from Auschwitz 1 to Birkenau (often called Auschwitz 2) because the first, although it has all the artifacts etc!. is really quite small!. Birkenau is the one they use in the films, huge, much more interesting I though as it conveyed the scale of the holocaust very well!. So yea, Its not a fun trip as such, but well worth going !. !. very interesting, and no you wont ever forget it!.!.!.!.hope you have a good trip!Www@QuestionHome@Com It is a horrible place to visit that demonstrates humans at their worse!.! It is not a fun experience like visiting Disney,etc!. Countless families like your's were crammed into filthy , cold freight trains like cattle and transported to that destination of misery and death by freezing, starvation or cyanide poison!. These people did no harm to anyone, their only crime was being born into a race that one person despised!. Remember these facts as you walk the site where those poor souls perished and be glad you and your loved ones were not among them!.!Www@QuestionHome@Com American is wrong when they said in their answer above that women and girls were forced to sex slaves!. It was in fact a very serious criminal offence for a German to have relations with a Jew!. Oscar Schindler was arrested himself, for kissing a Jewish girl on his birthday when he was presented a cake by her!. It was Plaszow Camp Commandant Amon Goeth that helped get him off the charge, otherwise Schindler would have been put in jail for a long time!. Your eyes at Auschwitz will be very widely opened to the horrors that humankind can lower itself to!. The memories will stay with you forever!.Www@QuestionHome@Com I personally have never been there but i'm sure it will be an experience you wont soon forget!. There is a great book out called "Night" by Elie Wiesel!. The book is a recount of his experiences at the Auschwitz concentration camp and may give you more of an appreciated of what the people there had to go through!.Www@QuestionHome@Com Well, good luck!. Its good to visit history, but I would get creeped out!. I went to a prison in Australia once!. In on of the buildings, people were murdered, sentenced to death, commited suicide and I could feel that horrible presence!. Then I walked through the cells and I could just feel the depression!. It was a unique experience!.Www@QuestionHome@Com it is very moving!. Seeing the conditions they lived in and the ovens they died in!. Hilter and his group rounded up millios of jews, gypsys, handicapped, gays, etc!. everyone they did not like!. They starved and worked them until they could work no more, then burned them up!. Women and girls were forced to be sex slaves!. Other were forced to be medical experiments!. It was horrible!.Www@QuestionHome@Com if you do not knwo anything about the holocaust, then this will not be as much of a wonderful experience as it could be!. i recommend you read Night by Eli Wiesel ( not a long book) and also watch teh movie schindler's list!. google things up on the holocaust as well!.Www@QuestionHome@Com i wanna go there es well!.!.it is nice to think of those innocent who died out there!.!.and make a time to visit that place!.!.well, before you go there, check out spielbergs schindlers list ! cruel, but must see !!Www@QuestionHome@Com Ive heard its a gas, but dont expect any laughs, the history of those camps is of murder and horror!.Www@QuestionHome@Com check it out at remember!.org/educate/intro!.htmlWww@QuestionHome@Com Read Primo LeviWww@QuestionHome@Com Just remember "It's not a theme park"Www@QuestionHome@Com |