I’m trying to provide my adult daughter with alternatives to Auschwitz-Birkenau as everything I’ve read and heard about the place is pretty intense—not something for an HSP (highly sensitive person). Any recommendations? We’ll be staying in Annweiler—a 2 to 2.5 hour train trip to Frankfurt or Munch.
Thank you everyone!
But, you won't be staying in Krakow? If you were, I'd suggest a visit to the Jewish cemetery, a tour of the old Jewish quarter and the Schindler museum.
I would call myself an HSP. When I'm traveling in Europe, I seek out resistance museums. I find them fascinating and I like the idea of people who were actively trying to help the Allied efforts/undermine the Nazis.
Hi Jules,
We have such precious little time together on this trip (she has 14 days) that I’m trying to steer us away from the earlier planned Prague > Krakow segment which absorbs 4 nights/5days of our vacation time.
Been leaning towards either Buchenwald, near Weimar or Sachsenhausen, near Berlin. This keeps us closer to family (the whole point of our visit) and free us up to visit the Dordogne region by car for 3d/4n. The HSP aspect is very important to keep us connected in a non-traumatic way.
You might be better off skipping the concentration camps altogether. Each of the camps have a terrible history, whether it be Auschwitz, Buchenwald or Ravensbruck. The only camp I didn’t find particularly intense or particularly upsetting was Dachau for some reason.
It's not compulsory to go to a concentration camp. Germany and Poland are more than their wartime history. I would not put your daughter through this. If you want something to remember the Jewish population, then you must look out for Stolpersteine (stumble stones), which are small brass cobblestones engraved with the name/s of Jewish people who perished in the Holocaust and laid outside where they last lived before being transported. You are supposed to literally stumble across them and think of the people commemorated on the cobblestone. This is simultaneously subtle and in-your-face. Stolpersteine are not only in Germany but have branched out to other countries. The lead artist is Günther Demnig.
Lavandula
Visiting concentration camps isn't something I would ever do. I know terrible things happened, but I don't necessarily want to go there to see where they happened.
I know that might be a somewhat controversial opinion here. I get that travel is for experience. But still, not for me, and it's sort of heartening for me to see that there's other people it wouldn't be the right fit for.
May I add to the post about the Stumble Stones? They are for anyone killed by the Nazis, not just Jewish people. You will find them for Communists, Socialists, Jehovah Witnesses, Roma/Sinti, and so many others.
If you are in Frankfurt, you may want to visit the Jewish Holocaust Remembrance Wall, with the names of almost 12,000 Jewish people deported from Frankfurt. There is also a WW2 bunker you could visit, with several historic exhibits inside.
https://initiative-neunter-november.de/
Going to Sachsenhausen, Ravensbrüch, Dachau, or Buchenwald are going to be very disturbing for your daughter too. 1000s and 1000s of people were killed in those places as well as horribly tortured. Suggest staying away from them and see or do something else that is not filled with photos of those who suffered and died.
How familiar are you with what your daughter CAN tolerate? For example, how much intensity can she handle watching a movie? Has she read the diary of Anne Frank? I would want to measure her reaction while visiting one of the many museums across Europe covering WWII, the Holocaust, the oppression of Eastern Europe postwar, etc, before I would consider exposing her to a concentration or death camp. And it should be her idea.
One does not have to engage with WWII history when visiting Europe. I feel like I'm missing something here
I think it is impossible to visit Europe without an understanding of the impact World War Two had on it, even if one chooses not to visit a Concentration Camp. Many Americans visit Normandy, just like Aussies and Kiwis visit the battlefields and cemeteries from World War One, especially if family is buried there. Do tourists not wonder why how the EU came into existence and why half of Europe was behind the ‘Iron Curtain’?
Do tourists not wonder why how the EU came into existence and why half of Europe was behind the ‘Iron Curtain’?
Well no, I don't think that's top of mind for the millions of tourists who visit Europe, most just want to relax enjoy the beach see a castle have gelato etc. In both countries I live in Spain/Sweden we have no WWII history
I agree with Susie. I think we all need to look at Germany and ponder how anti-Semitism could happen and is happening right now in our own nations.
Well no, I don't think that's top of mind for the millions of tourists who visit Europe...
Hard to reconcile that statement with the numerous museums, memorials and tourist sites in Europe dedicated to the world wars, Holocaust, Soviet era oppression, etc. Many of the museums are relatively new, carefully curated, and hi-tech - obviously with the intent to appeal to tourists - and my experience has been that Europeans make up a very large portion of the patrons at these sites. Here in the States, Civil War tourism is a significant activity.
“ Hard to reconcile that statement with the numerous museums, memorials and tourist sites in Europe dedicated to the world wars, Holocaust, Soviet era oppression, etc.”
On the contrary. It’s perfectly doable to visit lots of places in Europe and not find any museum, memorial or tourist site dedicated to WW1, WW2 or the Cold War. Not every country in Europe suffered gravely during these wars, therefore a blanket statement that you can’t escape WW2 while on holiday in Europe simply isn’t correct.
I agree with Dutchtraveler here, I think for those of us who actually live/work in Europe, you would be surprised how little WWII/Cold War history is part of our daily lives, and I'm probably the biggest WWII buff on this website (even though I have no personal connection to it as a Spaniard). We have 20+ centuries of rich history that I have more daily interaction with.
As for those war museums and memorials, most I'd argue are for domestic consumption rather than foreign tourists. As you mention Civil War tourism is a significant activity within your country.
As a non European (except for a British passport), I wonder if the EU would have even come into existence if World War Two had never happened and how the war shaped the attitudes of a country’s population as to the type of government they elected. Certainly one can visit Europe, eat a gelato and wander the streets visiting old ruins and churches as their cultural experience, but as Rick Steves himself says, ‘travelling is political’ and I believe that modern Europe ‘s politics and society have been shaped by the War
I'm late to the game, but I think Ravensbruck may be a good choice if you want to see a concentration camp and if you are in Berlin. The main exhibit does NOT contain graphic photos of atrocities. Instead, much of the story of the camp is told through the drawings of former prisoners of the camp. There is still an oven there, which may be disturbing. There is an exhibit about how the Nazi families lived there in the former Nazi housing. I did not go to that exhibit, so I do not know what it contains.
Hate to labour a point, but to argue Sweden and Spain have no World War Two history is disingenuous.
I have been to Ravensbrück twice and have to say, as a woman, I found it quite disturbing. It affected me differently than the other KZ I have visited. It has a different aura about it, and though I usually stay away from any kind of woo-woo kind of statements, it is just different here. The experiments done on these women were horrific. Siemens worked them to death. There were women here from all over Europe, many were spies or resistance fighters, or Soviet soldiers. There are exhibits here from every country. The women guards here, trained to be guards at Auschwitz and lived in what looks like cute cabins on the hillside. Nice town directly across the lake, full of "nice" people who mostly claim to have known nothing about what was happening here.
https://www.ravensbrueck-sbg.de/en/
I agree about the Stolplersteine. (https://www.stolpersteine.eu)
I seek them out in every city in Europe. Here is a list of where they are in Annweiler.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_der_Stolpersteine_in_Annweiler (in German). An alternative is to focus on the overall history of Jews in Germany, not just the Holocaust.
Annweiler is near the Shum cities, https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1636/
