t's horrifying, enraging, affirming, soul crushing, isolating, enlightening and a host of other emotions I'll continue to sort out over time.
I visited Treblinka first - northeast of Warsaw, Poland. It was desolate and eerie. We were the only people there for the entire time we visited other than the couple manning the museum.
They have a very small free museum with a few artifacts and you can go on a self led tour even using your car to drive right INTO the camp. First, we parked on the edge and walked in. Then as it got colder and darker, we drove the car carefully around the inside. The Germans tried to destroy all evidence but foundations of the barracks and officer's quarters remained. They've used very modest wooden plaques to identify the various barracks.
They look like this:
It is surrounded by a huge forest on almost all sides. Isolating and deafens out any noise outside of the camp. They've also constructed a huge rock memorial over the giant cremation pit. Some rocks have names and life dates. Some are blank and piled with other rocks. People have brought rocks from all over the world with prewritten messages in sticky paint or permanent marker to leave nestled into the nooks and crannies of the giant monolith in the center.
Next, I visited Auschwitz near Krakow, Poland. It is the most touristy and most rushed experience I had, but it is the most intact and has the most artifacts including massive rooms of human hair, children's shoes and clothes, and various grooming items. Although I REALLY disliked being rushed and not being able to process the experience, you really get a visual idea of how massive the place was. Then Birkenau blows you away. Rows and rows of barracks as far as you can see and although the gas chamber was blown up, portions remained intact. It's the iconic place to go and you'll recognize the arrival gate from Holocaust movies and books.
I also found it a bit ironic that the sticker you have to wear the entire time you are in Auschwitz is bright yellow:
I'm not sure if it is intentional or not, but my first thought was: "Bizarre. You still need a yellow badge to get in. At least it's not a star."
Finally, I visited Dachau in Bavaria, Germany. It was a mix between the two. It has a larger museum, lots of intact barracks, and guided tours. But you can also go on a self guided tour with and audio guide, if you want. When you go to the back of the camp, you can walk through a gas chamber that was used for testing next to a room of ovens.
Here's a picture of the rather unassuming room and door leading to the chamber:
It's surreal to just be able to walk in and walk out at will. There's also a winding path to the right of that building that has two massive memorials filled with ashes. I don't know why but that's the only time I cried out load and continuously at any of the camps. Maybe it was because I was alone or maybe there was just something about that spot. It was powerful. On the same winding path as the memorials are the execution walls where people were executed by firing squad. There's still bullet holes in the walls.
One thing that was disappointing about Dachau was one of the memorials on the outside wall near the museum has incorporated ALL the "badges" of those who were sent there (Jews, Poles, political prisoners, Gypsies, etc) but refused to incorporate the pink triangle badge worn by homosexuals. It seemed disrespectful and petty, regardless of the views (in the 1960s) on homosexuality in Germany.
There's dozens, if not hundreds of camps and sub camps to be seen if one wishes. I believe Dachau had a huge map of all the camps throughout Europe. You won't believe it until you see it.
If I had to suggest only one, especially for people who don't know a lot about the Holocaust, go to Auchwitz. The guided tour, artifacts, and intact buildings really help you to understand the enormity of what took place there.
One last word of advice, especially for you otherwise endearing photo snapping tourists from the east: these are NOT the places for cute, smiling, peace sign group photos. You should have a lot of them from your trip but they shouldn't be at a place of torture and mass murder.
I visited Treblinka first - northeast of Warsaw, Poland. It was desolate and eerie. We were the only people there for the entire time we visited other than the couple manning the museum.
They have a very small free museum with a few artifacts and you can go on a self led tour even using your car to drive right INTO the camp. First, we parked on the edge and walked in. Then as it got colder and darker, we drove the car carefully around the inside. The Germans tried to destroy all evidence but foundations of the barracks and officer's quarters remained. They've used very modest wooden plaques to identify the various barracks.
They look like this:
It is surrounded by a huge forest on almost all sides. Isolating and deafens out any noise outside of the camp. They've also constructed a huge rock memorial over the giant cremation pit. Some rocks have names and life dates. Some are blank and piled with other rocks. People have brought rocks from all over the world with prewritten messages in sticky paint or permanent marker to leave nestled into the nooks and crannies of the giant monolith in the center.
Next, I visited Auschwitz near Krakow, Poland. It is the most touristy and most rushed experience I had, but it is the most intact and has the most artifacts including massive rooms of human hair, children's shoes and clothes, and various grooming items. Although I REALLY disliked being rushed and not being able to process the experience, you really get a visual idea of how massive the place was. Then Birkenau blows you away. Rows and rows of barracks as far as you can see and although the gas chamber was blown up, portions remained intact. It's the iconic place to go and you'll recognize the arrival gate from Holocaust movies and books.
I also found it a bit ironic that the sticker you have to wear the entire time you are in Auschwitz is bright yellow:
Finally, I visited Dachau in Bavaria, Germany. It was a mix between the two. It has a larger museum, lots of intact barracks, and guided tours. But you can also go on a self guided tour with and audio guide, if you want. When you go to the back of the camp, you can walk through a gas chamber that was used for testing next to a room of ovens.
Here's a picture of the rather unassuming room and door leading to the chamber:
One thing that was disappointing about Dachau was one of the memorials on the outside wall near the museum has incorporated ALL the "badges" of those who were sent there (Jews, Poles, political prisoners, Gypsies, etc) but refused to incorporate the pink triangle badge worn by homosexuals. It seemed disrespectful and petty, regardless of the views (in the 1960s) on homosexuality in Germany.
There's dozens, if not hundreds of camps and sub camps to be seen if one wishes. I believe Dachau had a huge map of all the camps throughout Europe. You won't believe it until you see it.
If I had to suggest only one, especially for people who don't know a lot about the Holocaust, go to Auchwitz. The guided tour, artifacts, and intact buildings really help you to understand the enormity of what took place there.
One last word of advice, especially for you otherwise endearing photo snapping tourists from the east: these are NOT the places for cute, smiling, peace sign group photos. You should have a lot of them from your trip but they shouldn't be at a place of torture and mass murder.
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