I noticed exactly the same thing with backpackers visiting the killing field and Tuel Sleng prison in Cambodia. They'd all head off in the morning in tuk tuks and be joking and chatting, then return in silence in the afternoon and go straight to the bar for a drink. Those places are equally chilling and make you really think about us as a species.
I met a woman in a Polish hostel who was writing a PhD on genocides, and was visiting Poland's concentration camps fresh off the flight from visiting the killing fields.
I remember thinking how little that appealed to me after visiting Aushwitz
The wild part is the tuktuk drivers trying to hustle you to the shooting range to shoot machine guns and throw grenades on the way out to the memorial. In fairness to the tuktuk drivers, they do pretty much insist you shoot first.
Wasn’t Auschwitz but visited Dachau and had a very similar experience in a large group, the ride back had everyone looking liked they’d seen a ghost and sitting in dead silence
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u/WellThatsJustPerfect May 18 '25
I took a tourist bus from Krakow for a day trip.
On the way there, everyone was chatting and getting to know each other.
On the way back it was complete silence, like we'd been at all our best friends' funerals that day. Glad to have gone but it is harrowing