The worlds Darkest Hour

[Mymemories]

I lost 90% of my family in the camps and so 5 years ago my sister, mum and I went to Auschwitz and Madjanek. It’s not a visit I ever wanted to make but I felt it was my duty to go.

We’ve never really spoken about the visit since we came back …….. I guess we were all too shocked by what we saw.

[ERICSMUM]

There is a very shocking documentary called “Holocaust : Night Will Fall” about the allied forces who filmed the terrible scenes as they entered the concentration camps. It was on Ch 4 about this time last year, don’t know if it’s available on their “hub”. Very difficult to watch.

[ChrisS]

I don't remember which concentration camp it was, but my uncle was one of the first groups of soldiers to arrive at the end of the war, what he witnessed horrified him. Years later he returned to the camp and sadly commented that 'the grass didn't grow and the birds didn't sing'.

Like others I find the holocaust profoundly horrifying and sad, I question how some claim it was all propaganda and didn't happen.

[tiggertastic]

Originally Posted by Stew_the_red

we picked up a couple of books each whilst we were in the airport coming back, strangely the one I am reading is about a British Tommy who was captured and survived Auschwitz, he hails from the town where we lived after the family moved away from Liverpool! ill be looking to pick up the same book Tigger and mickspal have mentioned once I've finished these... on a brighter note we also did Schindlers enemal factory aswell which was very interesting

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The tattooist of Auschwitz, and the sisters of Auschwitz are also good. Awful but not as harrowing as the latest one I read.

I have a number of others ready to read. But I need a break between them.

[TinselAngel]

Originally Posted by Stew_the_red

Sadly its all for insta with some folk, seen it at the Hillsborough memorial at Anfield and at the 9-11 memorial on our last 2 visits to New York.

Sad really, that some think life is a competition and constantly trying to out door someone else, be it in life or with things like this

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I must have been fortunate as I’ve never seen anyone doing selfies at the hillsborough memorial - I hope I never do as I would find that sickening tbh. Those poor people have had enough disrespect already without that kind of behaviour - save the selfies for the pub/beach/school playground etc.!

I haven’t visited Auschwitz but DH and I have been to Dachau near Munich which is an experience similar to what has been described above - that was in spring 1989 and I’ll never forget the eerie quietness (no birdsong just a little wind noise) and overwhelming sadness of the place.

[novocastrian]

its horrific & i agree everyone one should go once *

we went in Spring 2019 it was still cold & pretty bleak.. hard to imagine this actually happened in living memory

have to agree about some of the people taking pictures/selfies everywhere... most shockingly in the gas chamber at Auschwitz we witnessed, American jewish students taking selfies in there...


* as i understand every german child in school has to undertake a visit

[Anne]

Originally Posted by tiggertastic

The tattooist of Auschwitz, and the sisters of Auschwitz are also good. Awful but not as harrowing as the latest one I read.

I have a number of others ready to read. But I need a break between them.

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The tattooist of Auschwitz is a novel and the Auschwitz Museum twitter account have tweeted this before "The factual mistakes & misinterpretations made by Heather Morris in "The Tattooist of Auschwitz" resulted in creating a distorted version of Auschwitz. This is dangerous and disrespectful to history. The story deserves better. #FactCheck "
viewer.joomag/memoria-en...0530/p6?short&

I would recommend everyone follow them on Twitter if you have it twitter/AuschwitzMuseum

[Twin mummy]

Originally Posted by Anne

The tattooist of Auschwitz is a novel and the Auschwitz Museum twitter account have tweeted this before "The factual mistakes & misinterpretations made by Heather Morris in "The Tattooist of Auschwitz" resulted in creating a distorted version of Auschwitz. This is dangerous and disrespectful to history. The story deserves better. #FactCheck "
viewer.joomag/memoria-en...0530/p6?short&

I would recommend everyone follow them on Twitter if you have it twitter/AuschwitzMuseum

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The Museum Twitter account is really informative. Thank you for mentioning about the inaccuracies of the tattoist of Auschwitz ( and the sequels) I nearly mentioned it but felt I’m always talking about issues like that as it’s a passion and specialist subject of mine.

On the same note the ‘no birds sing’ is also a bit of a myth (and may depend on time of year) in Birkenau in particular their are lots of birds- especially to the back of the camp near the sauna. I’ve also seen wild deer running through the trees.
It’s the people (Nazis and their collaborators) who committed the atrocious acts not something inherently evil in the place.

One thing that has always stayed with me is a survivor who said that however many times we visit Auschwitz (and other camps and killing sites) we can never truly visit Auschwitz and I for one am forever grateful that that is the case.

[tiggertastic]

Originally Posted by Anne

The tattooist of Auschwitz is a novel and the Auschwitz Museum twitter account have tweeted this before "The factual mistakes & misinterpretations made by Heather Morris in "The Tattooist of Auschwitz" resulted in creating a distorted version of Auschwitz. This is dangerous and disrespectful to history. The story deserves better. #FactCheck "
viewer.joomag/memoria-en...0530/p6?short&

I would recommend everyone follow them on Twitter if you have it twitter/AuschwitzMuseum

See more...

I am aware that that book had been somewhat dramatised. I read about it after.
As I said the other book paints a far more horrific picture of all camps.

[NewtoOrlando]

We're going to Krakow in March. We were supposed to go last March but the world had other ideas, so rebooked it as a surprise for DH 40th in March. We paid for my mum & dad to go a few years ago, and they said the same. Nothing prepares you for what you're about to see, no matter how well researched into the atrocities you are.

As for the selfies. I really struggled with this when we visited Ground Zero & the 9/11 museum in 2018. It's just so disrespectful. You want a smiley selfie, go and do it in the pub, not on a site where thousands upon thousands perished.

Much like 9/11, I find it somewhere that I feel I everyone should visit in their lifetime, to try and get some sort of understanding about what happened there. My eldest is 16 nearly and I think she would get more out of it than my 14 year old would at the moment, so I might take her one day, or at least encourage her to go at some point.