Auschwitz

The barracks at Auschwitz

One of the main reasons I wanted to visit Krakow was to go to Auschwitz. I had been to Dachau before and that was overwhelming. Dachau was never a mass extermination camp the way Auschwitz was. I wanted to get a sense of how bad it really was.

Dachau seemed to be set up as a memorial to the people who died as well as making sure no-one forgot what had happened. I never got that same feeling in Auschwitz.

Barbed wire fences at Auschwitz

When you visit Auschwitz you have to go with a guide, they had 2 million people visit in 2016 and it seems they feel this is the only way to manage that many people coming through. It ended up feeling very different from Dachau. There I remembered a very solemn atmosphere with time to look around and feel what had happened. In Auschwitz you are forced into a group of 50 people, given earphones to hear the guide, and then follow on the heels of another 50 person tour group. With yet another massive group right behind you.

There was never any time to contemplate things, you were forced on the move the whole time. And even though Auschwitz is quite large, all the tour groups go to the same buildings. So you are constantly squeezing past people or waiting for other people to clear the rooms ahead of you. It feels like they have made the decision that everyone who wants to see Auschwitz should be allowed the opportunity, which is an admirable decision. I worry that in making sure everyone can visit that they are destroying what they should be preserving.

Chimneys at Birkenau

The end of the tracks at Birkenau

I would not go with an organised tour if you can help it. We went because it seemed the easiest and I thought a guide would help understand what is around you. Auschwitz is 60km outside Krakow and is not super simple to get there independently. If you arrive before 10am you don't have to join a tour, I would definitely do that if you can. That way you can take as long as you want, I think there are audio guides and there are also information boards all around the place. It wasn't as if the guide added anything in terms of information or emotion, so don't feel like you are missing anything. That way you can avoid the crowds of people and actually remember what should be preserved.

Inside the barracks at Birkenau

Even though the atmosphere wasn't what I was expecting you still leave blown away at what happened. Another of those overwhelming moments.

Auschwitz ended up being too small for the Nazis and they progressively built more and more camps around the town. That was another thing I didn't realise, Auschwitz used to be an army barracks and it's in a town, Oswiecim. I always imagined these places being in the middle of nowhere.

We visited Birkenau at the same time, it's about a kilometre from Auschwitz, and it's an almost empty field, it's massive, but most of the sheds where people used to be kept have been destroyed. Because the original barracks at Auschwitz were too small for the Nazi's extermination plans, they built Birkenau. Birkenau was really something else, just this train line ending in the middle of this field. When the prisoners arrived, after being locked in train carriages with no food or water whilst they travelled from wherever they lived, they would then be sorted, the old, infirm and children immediately murdered. The inside of the barracks here were horrible, the bare minimum to be considered a shelter. I can't imagine this place during winter, it must have been freezing.

The Nazis destroyed the gas chambers before they abandoned Birkenau

I think it definitely needs visiting, but don't use it as a learning experience, do your learning before you come. And go early in the day, by yourself, if you can.