Has anyone visited Auschwitz?

[chappaai]

my late father was a Holocaust survivor, I don't think I could go to a concentration camp, but I have been to the Holocaust museum in DC and like you said it was very sobering. I also went to the register office there to find out if they had any info on my father. He was a displaced person after the war. At first the man couldn't find anything and I was slowly walking away when he came after me and found some papers about my father. I was thrilled, it made me feel like I still had contact with my father. He was not in a concentration camp, but he did spend time in Russia in one of their prisons, which wasn't any picnic.

I also don't know if I could bear it. My grandfather (German-American Jew) served in the Army and helped with the liberation of Buchenwald. I remember having pictures of his family and my grandmother's family at their house, but never hearing anything about them. I actually didn't find out my grandfather even served in the Army until after he died. My father brought it up when my sister was being an idiot (dating a Holocaust denier). I know we originally came from Germany and Poland, but that's about it. I think there's definitely a reason why this isn't something we talked about, and I'm pretty sure the answer isn't any good. I can't even talk about the Holocaust without shedding tears.

I do think every non-Jew must visit Auschwitz.

 

[Peach Wookiee]

Your grandfather saw as close to Hell as it is possible in this world, chappaai. I can understand why it would've been extremely hard to talk about it.

 

[T'Bonz]

Just going to the Holocaust Museum in D.C. was tough. Not sure how I would handle a former concentration camp. While going to Munich back in 1996, we passed a sign that said "Dachau" and that was sobering enough.

 

[Rincewiend]

I visited Theresienstadt concentration camp in the Czech Republic about 20 years ago...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theresienstadt_concentration_camp

It was very sobering. It was a nice and sunny day, but there was indeed a strange quiet around it...

Extra piece of history:

From 1914 until 1918, Gavrilo Princip was imprisoned here, after his conviction for the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife on June 28, 1914, a catalyst for World War I. Princip died in Cell Number 1 from tuberculosis on April 28, 1918.

 

[Tora Ziyal]

Tonight I attended a Passover seder -- not my first seder, but the first one since I found out that my maternal grandmother's family was, and therefore I am, Jewish. As if that weren't moving enough on its own, part way through dinner I figured out that the awesome elderly woman with whom I was discussing current refugee issues was herself a refugee and Holocaust survivor...

 

[SPCTRE]

I visited Dachau several times as a student in Munich. It was an important and formative experience. Utterly horrifying.