Visiting Concentration Camps

Dieppe · 06-10-2007, 05:01 PM

Jean and I would like, sometime in the future, to visit one of the camps like Belsen or Auschwitz.
We have only recently got interested in WW2 (our areas are WW1 and the 1745 Jacobite Rising) and that interest only really covers Dunkirk, D-Day and Arnhem (along with the units mentioned in my signature), so we know zilch about the Concentration Camps.
However, we have obviously heard about them and feel that they are places we should visit; even if just to show we remember all those who were incarcerated in them.

So, now to the question!!

Is there a map showing the locations of the camps (even if it is just the major/infamous ones.
Are there proper tours to the camps (like WWI battlefield tours)?

Many thanks.

Ron Goldstein · 06-10-2007, 05:30 PM

Dieppe

Google will provide quite a few maps including this one:

Holocaust Map of Concentration and Death Camps

I'm sure that others on this site will give more detailed information.

Best wishes

Ron

Owen · 06-10-2007, 06:33 PM

Battlefield Tours 2007 tour list
For 2008.

Quote:

12 Days, 11 Nights
Great Escapes Tour, Holland, Germany, Poland
16th – 27th August 2008

Extracts from itinery from 2007
WW2 battlefield tours to Berlin and Great Escapes tour

Quote:

We then travel through Germany to visit Belsen Concentration Camp.....
The following day we visit the Auschwitz and Auschwitz Birkenau Camps with our local guide.

Paul Reed · 06-10-2007, 06:53 PM

Leger Holidays also do a tour relating to the Holocaust:

The Story of Anne Frank & Oscar Schindler | Battlefield Tours | Leger Holidays

Dieppe · 06-10-2007, 07:16 PM

Ron, Owen & Paul: Thank you all for the info, it is very much appreciated.
I did Google for a map, but when you don't know anything about a subject you're not sure if you're looking at the right info.
Anyhoo, thanks for the help everyone!

Owen · 06-10-2007, 07:41 PM

Here's another one.
Guided Travel with European Contemporary History Tours.

oops, it's a US one.

Paul Reed · 06-10-2007, 08:34 PM

Lee, if you want to go on your own, which I suspect you do, use all of the tour itineraries we have linked to, and fire-up Google Earth. That will give you an idea where everything is.

Dieppe · 08-10-2007, 05:56 AM

Cheers Paul, we might well do that!

Zoya · 16-03-2008, 07:50 PM

From my experience, I would avoid a coach/organised tour if at all possible. You end up being rushed around in a group, with often not enough time to see everything, and more importantly, to take it in.

My experience of Auschwitz was of being quickly moved from one horror to another, with no time to reflect or take a breather, and the end result was either emotional overload, or somehow switch off. I found I couldn't do the latter, and it made it very difficult for me to complete the tour. It really is horrific. Especially when you go straight from block 11, the punishment block to the small gas chamber at Auschwitz 1 (the only gas chamber not to be destroyed by the camp guards before deserting the camp). There also wasn't enough time, so we didn't get to see the remains of the gas chambers at Birkenau, and the selction platform we only saw from the distance of the guard tower.

If you can, take a train to Auschwitz and then take a bus, or walk the mile to the camp from the station. Pay for an individual guide when you get there, it's not too expensive. I wishe we'd have done it that way. If you want to stay anywhere fairly close, Krakow is the nearest large city, and is a beautiful place. Unlike Warsaw, it was left virtually undamaged at the end of the occupation.

Hth!

chipmunk wallah · 29-03-2008, 01:15 AM

I heartily echo Zoyas thoughts. Do visit the state museum at Auschwitz ,Dont do it as part of a coach party! These people are generaly not respected by the guides as most tour buses turn up,spend a couple of hours gawping at the horror then go off for a nice jolly to the local salt mine(which is actually well worth a visit but on another day.)
Also,as you are new to the subject I imagine,and I mean no disrespect,you will probably be basing some knowladge on say Shindlers list? Well,if that is the case,if you stay in Krakow his old factory is still in pretty much the same condition it was during the war.Easily located in the Podgorzedistrict just over the river from Krakows old town center. Also,if your feet are up to the walk,a couple of good miles away is the site of the former Plasow KZ .Not much there,a few memorials in Polish,the old SS barracks is now a private residence and all that remains of the butcher Goethes villa is the cellar,or rather a big hole.Still very spooky though.

06-10-2007, 05:01 PM	#1 (permalink)
Dieppe Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Buckinghamshire Posts: 151	Visiting Concentration Camps Jean and I would like, sometime in the future, to visit one of the camps like Belsen or Auschwitz. We have only recently got interested in WW2 (our areas are WW1 and the 1745 Jacobite Rising) and that interest only really covers Dunkirk, D-Day and Arnhem (along with the units mentioned in my signature), so we know zilch about the Concentration Camps. However, we have obviously heard about them and feel that they are places we should visit; even if just to show we remember all those who were incarcerated in them. So, now to the question!! Is there a map showing the locations of the camps (even if it is just the major/infamous ones. Are there proper tours to the camps (like WWI battlefield tours)? Many thanks. __________________ In memory of my great uncle, 5833402 Private Percy Bradbury, 5th Bn Suffolk Regiment. Captured at Singapore and died in captivity aged 26 years. Buried at Kanchanaburi War Cemetery; so far from home but not from our hearts Learning about the Indian Airborne, Army Commandos, Home Guard, Paras, LRDG, SAS & SOE during the war.

06-10-2007, 05:30 PM	#2 (permalink)
Ron Goldstein WW2 Veteran Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: London, England Posts: 599	Dieppe Google will provide quite a few maps including this one: Holocaust Map of Concentration and Death Camps I'm sure that others on this site will give more detailed information. Best wishes Ron __________________ If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when? Rabbi Hillel circa 30 BCE I was "Called-up" in Oct 1942 Served as a Wireless-Op with the 49th LAA (78 Div) from Apr 1943 to Dec 1944 (North Africa,Sicily,Italy, Egypt). The Regiment was disbanded in Dec 1944 and I was retrained (in Italy) by the Royal Armoured Corps. Served as a Loader-Op with the 4th QOH from Mar 1945 to Jan 1946 (Italy, Austria, Germany) Finished up as Tech Cpl for "A" Sqdrn. I was "De-mobbed" in Apr 1947

06-10-2007, 06:53 PM	#4 (permalink)
Paul Reed Ubique Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: UK/France Posts: 2,721	Leger Holidays also do a tour relating to the Holocaust: The Story of Anne Frank & Oscar Schindler \| Battlefield Tours \| Leger Holidays __________________ Webmaster - D Day Ancestors: The British Army in Normandy - http://www.ddayancestors.com/ Webmaster - Battlefields of WW2- http://www.ww2battlefields.info/ Webmaster - WW2 Cemeteries - http://www.ww2cemeteries.co.uk/

06-10-2007, 07:16 PM	#5 (permalink)
Dieppe Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Buckinghamshire Posts: 151	Ron, Owen & Paul: Thank you all for the info, it is very much appreciated. I did Google for a map, but when you don't know anything about a subject you're not sure if you're looking at the right info. Anyhoo, thanks for the help everyone! __________________ In memory of my great uncle, 5833402 Private Percy Bradbury, 5th Bn Suffolk Regiment. Captured at Singapore and died in captivity aged 26 years. Buried at Kanchanaburi War Cemetery; so far from home but not from our hearts Learning about the Indian Airborne, Army Commandos, Home Guard, Paras, LRDG, SAS & SOE during the war.

06-10-2007, 08:34 PM	#7 (permalink)
Paul Reed Ubique Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: UK/France Posts: 2,721	Lee, if you want to go on your own, which I suspect you do, use all of the tour itineraries we have linked to, and fire-up Google Earth. That will give you an idea where everything is. __________________ Webmaster - D Day Ancestors: The British Army in Normandy - http://www.ddayancestors.com/ Webmaster - Battlefields of WW2- http://www.ww2battlefields.info/ Webmaster - WW2 Cemeteries - http://www.ww2cemeteries.co.uk/

06-10-2007, 07:41 PM	#6 (permalink)
Owen Top Moose Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Under the stairs Posts: 8,301	Here's another one. Guided Travel with European Contemporary History Tours. oops, it's a US one.

08-10-2007, 05:56 AM	#8 (permalink)
Dieppe Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Buckinghamshire Posts: 151	Cheers Paul, we might well do that! __________________ In memory of my great uncle, 5833402 Private Percy Bradbury, 5th Bn Suffolk Regiment. Captured at Singapore and died in captivity aged 26 years. Buried at Kanchanaburi War Cemetery; so far from home but not from our hearts Learning about the Indian Airborne, Army Commandos, Home Guard, Paras, LRDG, SAS & SOE during the war.

16-03-2008, 07:50 PM	#9 (permalink)
Zoya Partisan Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Cheshire, England Posts: 169	From my experience, I would avoid a coach/organised tour if at all possible. You end up being rushed around in a group, with often not enough time to see everything, and more importantly, to take it in. My experience of Auschwitz was of being quickly moved from one horror to another, with no time to reflect or take a breather, and the end result was either emotional overload, or somehow switch off. I found I couldn't do the latter, and it made it very difficult for me to complete the tour. It really is horrific. Especially when you go straight from block 11, the punishment block to the small gas chamber at Auschwitz 1 (the only gas chamber not to be destroyed by the camp guards before deserting the camp). There also wasn't enough time, so we didn't get to see the remains of the gas chambers at Birkenau, and the selction platform we only saw from the distance of the guard tower. If you can, take a train to Auschwitz and then take a bus, or walk the mile to the camp from the station. Pay for an individual guide when you get there, it's not too expensive. I wishe we'd have done it that way. If you want to stay anywhere fairly close, Krakow is the nearest large city, and is a beautiful place. Unlike Warsaw, it was left virtually undamaged at the end of the occupation. Hth! __________________ The Motherland, bent over her daughter's ashes, Sings this tender maternal song About Zoya, the girl, who has become a legend, Who died and was born for eternal life. Dimitri Shostakovich Song for Zoya (1944) The War in the East

29-03-2008, 01:15 AM	#10 (permalink)
chipmunk wallah Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: By the mighty Don,no,not the Russian one :) Posts: 175	I heartily echo Zoyas thoughts. Do visit the state museum at Auschwitz ,Dont do it as part of a coach party! These people are generaly not respected by the guides as most tour buses turn up,spend a couple of hours gawping at the horror then go off for a nice jolly to the local salt mine(which is actually well worth a visit but on another day.) Also,as you are new to the subject I imagine,and I mean no disrespect,you will probably be basing some knowladge on say Shindlers list? Well,if that is the case,if you stay in Krakow his old factory is still in pretty much the same condition it was during the war.Easily located in the Podgorzedistrict just over the river from Krakows old town center. Also,if your feet are up to the walk,a couple of good miles away is the site of the former Plasow KZ .Not much there,a few memorials in Polish,the old SS barracks is now a private residence and all that remains of the butcher Goethes villa is the cellar,or rather a big hole.Still very spooky though.

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