Holocaust Memorial Day

No they didn't and not only because of the trauma they'd been through. The Poles knew first-hand that the Soviets were little different to the Nazis. Yet the British public had been deceived into thinking our glorious Soviet allies were saints. On arrival in this country they were ordered never to talk

 

This.

Anything you can share and want to share, I'll gladly listen. And if you want to share so much that this post reaches 200+ pages, we'll even let you have the 4,000th post ;-)[/QUOTE]
Well that is tempting me....

 

I was at Rheindahlen for three years and it took me almost until tourex to visit two concentration camps. My wife and I decided to take six weeks leave for a kind of “Grand Tour”. It started with a trip north to Amsterdam and, of course, a visit to the Anne Frank Huis was a must. Really, really disturbing place to visit. We then headed back south and while staying in Dachau village for a few days we went out to the camp. It was surprisingly sterile with little evidence of the horrors that had been carried out there.

In complete contrast though was Terezin/Theresienstadt, a camp just north of Prague which chilled me to the bone. There was hardly anyone there on the day we visited and this just heightened the eerie atmosphere of the place. It was more of a detention camp than an extermination camp but plenty were tortured and murdered there.

About fifteen years later I visited Auschwitz in the company of my new partner who is Polish. This was just overwhelming with building after building full of grisly, shocking history. It was almost too much to take in but I paid them the respect of making sure that I read most of the display boards.

There was one really creepy bit for me when I went to a place between two of the buildings that had a high wall forming an enclosed space with a single wooden pole fixed to the ground near that wall. This was one of the places where the Germans shot people tied to that post. I swear to you that this is true; as I stood there, imagining the horror, I could smell cordite. I could smell gunfire!! As an ex-Serviceman I knew that distinctive smell and it was there, in my nostrils, that day.

Everyone who has the chance should visit one of these places. You will never forget it.

 

How dreadful, lovely World, just some of the people in it!!!!!!!!

 

I don't think i could it's truly horrific reading about it, full respect to anyone who can.

 

No further comment necessary.

 

We were in Madrid around three years ago, and decided to see the Holocaust exhibition/memorial that was being staged in major European cities at the time. We felt we had to, given we had never managed to visit Auschwitz or any of the other death camps. We expected to spend a couple of hours there, but five hours later we emerged, utterly devastated. Although we had, of course, read about the horrors inflicted by the Nazis, and seen the mostly grainy black and white footage taken at the time, the sheer scale of the murder-machine and the reality that the perpetrators were, in many cases, just ordinary people, really brought home the fact that this could certainly happen again given the necessary conditions.

 

Thanks DWLc - not visited any of those so I'll add those to the list of places to visit. If we're ever able to travel again!

 

More Trump supporters here. They're just abhorrent creatures. (stands for 6 million wasn't enough)

 

Unbelievable!!!!

 

Good for you statis and I'm glad you're here. You stand as proof of the bad guy's failure to crush the real human spirit

 

The last week or so, I've found I've been trawling through city break pictures more and more as it comes to almost a year since my last European city trips (Lviv and... Belfast).

I'd love to travel, but as my missus said when she first had to shield... even if we were never able to travel again, we've certainly been fortunate enough to have visited some incredible places that we'll have in our memories.

If we are able, Gdansk will likely be the first revisit (seeing as we were due to go there last year and had to postpone) and I think Riga is likely to be high up on the pecking order. Some incredible Art Nouveau buildings there.

The great thing with the 3 baltic countries, they are incredibly good value (especially if you go in Jan/Feb). And if you go in mid January, you'll likely catch a christmas break as the Russian Orthodox festive calendar is still ongoing.

 

I hope I'm interpreting the meaning of your comment correctly. If not, can I clarify that my remark refers to the fact that the picture tells its own story? My subsequent post about my experience in Madrid hopefully makes clear my abhorrence of the kind of person shown in the photograph.

 

Tallinn, the capital of Estonia is worth a visit. Beautiful old town.

 

I find it unbelievable that ANYONE can wear a shirt with THAT ON!!!!!!

 

It is indeed. We enjoyed it so much we quickly booked a trip to Riga for the following month and then went to Vilnius the winter after. Did you go to the sea plane museum in Tallinn? Its possibly my favourite museum anywhere in the world.

 

Millions died and if my father had been killed then who would know anything about his family? They would never have existed. And that’s what the Nazis and Soviets were aiming to do. Wipe out peoples and their histories. They so nearly got away with it too. There were survivors from Auschwitz but of the 600,000 who entered Belzec only two are known to have come out.

“I come from a place that doesn’t exist where everyone is dead.” My father got it spot on.

 

Thank you for sharing what must still be such a traumatic story for you and your family.

 

Abhorrent is ONE word for them, makes my blood boil!!!

 

We did! In fact my company held its Christmas party there!!