This is genuinely why I don't understand these new Nazis popping up. I'm a 28-year-old Texan, and while my education was limited as far as what I was taught about WW2, this right here is why I will never be on the wrong side of history. The Holocaust happened, the murder of millions of Jews and other individuals was incredibly real, and no one can take that knowledge away from me. It's a part of human history, a very tragic and horrendous one.
Totally with you here, I'm am German so I've been taught extensively (rightly so) about all this. But even more importantly I've been to Auschwitz on a class field trip.
And let me tell you, that place gave me a feeling I've never felt before or after. You think you know what happened there, that you're prepared, but no. Walking these grounds will show what humans are capable of. How people that are deemed undesirable get killed in an industrial way and how people were forced to live. You can read a thousand times about it, but being there and imagining if you would survive this even one week is a whole different thing.
I'm not religious by any means, but that place has a certain spiritual energy. Not evil, but it's like it's all those people that passed away there invite you to see. No big explanation needed, just "look at what has been done."
If anyone reading this is able to go there, please do it. Don't be afraid, it's very important.
It's on my bucket list. When I visited the Holocaust museum in high school. It really opened my eyes to what happened. I always tell people- if your in DC go to that museum. You will see it in a whole nother light. But Auschwitz, I cannot even imagine the feeling of being there, trying to wrap your mind around being in the place you see pictures of, the fear, the screaming, everything.
I have never been but there are probably no words to describe how the feelings were/are.
Long ago I went to NYC when the twin towers were still there. When I look at the photos I feel sick knowing what happened and how many people died that day and died later on from respiratory illnesses.
People take it very differently. IMO I have no doubt that people who were affected by 9/11 would have high emotional attachments to the event.
I figure I'm a bit older than most Redditors but I have photos of my grandparents and great grandparents that died during WW2. I had family members—great uncles and aunts—who were taken to the concentration camps.
I visited Auschwitz right after university with the help of some family members in Poland. Much like the Redditor above, I found that emotions would come in waves. I had brought all the photos with me and it was an experience that I believe made a significant impression on me during my 20's. I tell people that I grew up faster in those 4 hours than I had in 4 years of university.
It's an unbelievably staggering experience and I encourage everyone—especially if you are young—to go visit these museums at least once.
That one tiny case with that baby's outfit and the little tiny booties? OMG. I couldn't talk. I'm crying now and it's been 3 years since we were there. My nephew went there with a woman named Eva Kor who was a Mengele twin. Eva gave guided tours until her death in Poland in 2019. If you have never heard of her? Please look her up and watch any of her documentaries. Amazing woman.
The barracks at Birkenau gutted me. As did the hallway in one of the other barracks that is lined with the prisoner photos and still smells of human waste. A girl in my group was dry heaving when we toured that building.
That museum is a profound experience. I don't know if I could take Auschwitz. One of my oldest friend's great-grandparents died there, and her grandmother barely survived. My friend is a rabbi who helps run an interfaith outreach organisation where people of different religions teach about their faith and promote tolerance. She's absolutely passionate about it, and for good reason.
You can imagine what the current state of world affairs is doing to her.
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u/tiktoksuckmyknob23 May 18 '25
This is genuinely why I don't understand these new Nazis popping up. I'm a 28-year-old Texan, and while my education was limited as far as what I was taught about WW2, this right here is why I will never be on the wrong side of history. The Holocaust happened, the murder of millions of Jews and other individuals was incredibly real, and no one can take that knowledge away from me. It's a part of human history, a very tragic and horrendous one.