Feb-2025
Auschwitz Concentration Camps
I’ve been to the Anne Frank house in the Netherlands, Holocaust Museum in Israel, and now Auschwitz in Poland.
Auschwitz, also known as Auschwitz-Birkenau, opened in 1940 and was the largest of the Nazi concentration and death camps. Located in southern Poland, Auschwitz initially served as a detention center for political prisoners. However, it evolved into a network of camps where Jewish people and other perceived enemies of the Nazi state were exterminated, often in gas chambers, or used as slave labor. Some prisoners were also subjected to barbaric medical experiments led by Josef Mengele. During World War II , more than 1 million people, by some accounts, lost their lives at Auschwitz.
Auschwitz is divided into two camps. Auschwitz I, which was the first one to be set up and which held up to 20,000 prisoners, and Auschwitz II – Birkenau, which was the largest of the two camps holding up to 90,000 at any given time.
It was a very tough visit, but an important one—experiences like this change you. Our guide even thanked us for bringing our kids to Auschwitz. When you’re in the classroom learning about these horrific events, you really can’t connect with them until you’re actually here in person. It’s a story that deserves to be told and no doubt that it cannot and must not be repeated.
On a side note, it’s not recommended to bring children under 12. You must have a guide to enter (we booked our tour through Viator), and passports are checked at entry.
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