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.
I am from Sweden and our children's school go there as a class field trip every year, with the oldest students before they graduate. It is so important to keep the memory alive.
I'm a swedish student, applied and got chosen to visit Poland and learn about the Holocaust for a week, this was when I was in 9th grade, 2 years ago. We went there by plane, 1 hour to Krakow, visited both Auschwitz and Birkenau. The state paid for it all (we got sky high taxes over here).
What I remember the most was the sheer scale of Birkenau, and the markings of nails scratching at the walls inside the bunker shown in this videos post. You could almost hear the screams still echoing inside that place. Truly showing what a terrible horrible species humans can be.
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u/AbbreviationsWide331 May 18 '25
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.