Auschwitz Birkenau Tour | Oświęcim Poland | The thing that affected me most was unexpected!

The KRAJEWSKA twins who were murdered by the nazists 1943 in Auschwitz Birkenau camp

A trip to ​Auschwitz-Birkenau, what a horrible place!

​Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi concentration and extermination camp, operated in German-occupied Poland during WWII. Over 1.1 million people, mostly Jews, were murdered there. It remains a stark symbol of the Holocaust's atrocities.

​Visiting both Auschwitz-Birkenau and the Wieliczka Salt Mine in a single day proved to be a mistake. While I anticipated the emotional weight of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the sheer scale of the tragedy and the long hours of the tour left me drained. The subsequent visit to the salt mine, though fascinating, felt jarring and disrespectful to the solemn experience I had just endured. It's a lesson learned: Auschwitz-Birkenau deserves its own day, allowing for proper reflection and processing of the horrors it represents. However the thing that affected me most with Auschwitz-Birkenau wasn't anticipated...