Travelling to Auschwitz

[Niniel]

My school has decided that the students in 9th grade will go to Poland each year to visit Krakow, Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II Birkenau. I went there four years ago and now it was my time to go there again. You might think it´s easier to visit the concentration camps when you have already been ther before but it´s not. Standing in the gas chamber is still frightening. I saw things that I didn´t saw the first time and that added to the horror. Birkenau is a really big concentration camp and this time I got to see all of it. The men´s baracks, the women´s baracks, the rubble that used to be the gas chambers and the crematorium, the "bath house", the Romani camp (no baracks are left there) and, of course, the platform. The platform where people was selected for instant death or a slow death. I had the privilege to talk to my students about Eva and Mirijam, twins who where part of Dr Mengeles "studies" and about the day when the Romani resisted the Nazis. I told both stories at the place where it happend. 

 

Nowdays when there are people denying the Holocaust it´s even more important that we see for ourself what happened to understand and remember. In my country we have a duty to teach the kids about the Holocaust. How is it in your countries? Have you learned about the Holocaust? Have you visited any Holocaust related places?

 

I´m happy to answer any questions.