6 million memories

[coffee]

Don't want to start any political rants or anything just wanted to remember the jews murdered by the Nazis,including 1 million children world war 2  on this Holocaust Rememberance Day. R.I.P.

[slappy]

RIP  indeed, a terrible crime committed against those of the Jewish faith.
My wife visited [color=rgb(60, 64, 67)]Auschwitz  last year and had to leave half way through  because she was so upset by what  she saw and read. [/color]

[Frosties]

Auschwitz is on my list even though I know I won't like it.

[mtread]

I visited Auschwitz a couple of years ago. It must be done. You visit both the remaining camps. I found Auschwitz Birkenau the most haunting. The railway line ending with buffers. We must never forget.

[Trebus]

Have also visited Auschwitz and it is indeed a very harrowing experience. Puts our day to day ‘struggles’ into perspective.

[ogri48]

yeah me and penny went four years back. Incredible place. As you say, we must never forget or allow it to be forgotten. We stayed at Krakow, wonderful old city, wonderful people.

[mtread]

Yes Krakow is good and very friendly. The Schindler factory /museum and the Jewish Quarter where the ghetto stood. They also put it all in perspective

[maddog04]

Indeed, we must never forget.

a past work colleague went and said it was harrowing, someone else I know went and said it wasn't as bad as he'd thought it would be (not disrespectful but I think he'd heard that much and built himself a wall to bat off what he thought was going to be a really upsetting experience)

just watching old war films can give an idea of the horrors but seeing the camps for real.....I can only assume it would be a sobering experience. It's something me and the Mrs would like to do but she's in a wheelchair. Those who have been, can you say if Krakow and the camps are wheelchair friendly?
TIA

[Robbie8666]

Haven't been myself, however when I went to Jersey I went to the German Hospital there & that place was about as much as I could take!

& still people out there try to deny it ever happened!!

Lest we Forget!

[Decoke Dave]

        More young people need to be educated about what happened in the holocaust, these were real human beings, R.I.P. Amazing how many people know so little about it. This famous saying was never more true.  Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them!

[mtread]

Unfortunately genocide still continues, albeit with smaller numbers

[coffee]

It's hard to understand how many people were murdered until you think about more than the combined population of Birmingham,Manchester,Glasgow and Liverpool disappearing in a few years, sickening.

[ogri48]

I didn't realise until I went that most of the old, the women and the children never made the site huts, they were walked down the line straight to bunker one and bunker two for "showering". On their "best" day they murdered around 11000 human beings. utterly incomprehensible....


Yes mate, I think it is wheelchair friendly, though its best to book through one of the guided tours. Their English is superb, everywhere you go, and food and drink are so cheap its untrue. A carrier bag full of delicious bakery goods to see us through the day was about eight quid. In the evening a couple of steaks and a bottle of wine is under £40 if you go some where quiet. Accomodation in one of the old city apartments is cheap and beautiful. And the old part of Krakow, with the square and everything, is like going back in time fifty or sixty years here and visiting London. its a stunning city.
The two camps are definitely somewhere everyone should visit..

[ogri48]

they don't waste much in Poland btw. we came across this fence on the way to the camp. way to use up old mopeds and sewing machines dudes..

[steve 10562cc]

I knew a old boy that was one of the squaddies that liberated Belson. He had nightmares till the day he died and the stench of death in that camp never left him.  He would never talk about it. The human race must never be allowed to forget what happened in these places.  R.I.P 

[maddog04]

Thanks ogri48
when you say the apartments .....are they wheelchair friendly too?

I know I'm asking a lot but in short, we need lifts not stairs and towns/cities that are flat (I'm getting on now and can't be pushing her up hill :lol)

toilets is another big issue, even in this country you wouldn't believe the hassle of trying to find an accessible disabled toilet

cheers

[ogri48]

that I don't know mate, though I think them old apartment blocks are like in French or Italian cities and have lifts in the lobbies. Definitely worth taking her if you can swing it. Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen will knock the crap out of you, but it don't half put things in perspective

[Frosties]

I didn't realise until I went that most of the old, the women and the children never made the site huts, they were walked down the line straight to bunker one and bunker two for "showering". On their "best" day they murdered around 11000 human beings. utterly incomprehensible....

I'm still struggling to get my head around this....


11,000 people ffs.


Whenever I read about mass numbers of deaths i.e. WW1, the only way I can visualise it is through sporting stadiums....old Wembley was 100,000 etc.


This 11,000 is nearly full capacity for my home town of Southend's footy ground. I can visualise the crowd......but that many people in 1 day just screws my head.

[ogri48]

when you stand by the bunkers and the memorial, your standing in the ashes of something like 4 million people. As you say mate, its just impossible to get your head around..

[F4celess]

when you stand by the bunkers and the memorial, your standing in the ashes of something like 4 million people. As you say mate, its just impossible to get your head around..

Truly is sickening. How the German soldiers who ran the camps could stand there looking the poor souls in the eye, as they were being ushered off the trains in their thousands, knowing what they were about to experience, men women and children.........  humans are the most evil species of any kind walking this planet.