Auschwitz vs Dachau

This is a personal choice.

And it’s hard to recommend on this subject.

Dachau was a concentration camp that was long running and targeted a wide range of victims— political opponents, any group the Germans persecuted, Roma and so on.Only a fraction were Jewish.

Auschwitz was a death camp and its victims were mostly Jewish. While there were a few that escaped immediate execution to work, death came quickly for almost all.

I personally believe everyone should visit Auschwitz but again recommendations on this are difficult. These are inhuman, bitter and cruel lessons from history.

Rick Steves tours are extremely well done. I am sure you’ll end that tour on a happy and high note. This might be a difficult coda from that experience.

I agree with what David says above about this being a very personal choice and difficult to recommend. I will say I found visiting these locations to be extremely different experiences. Visiting Auschwitz to me felt a lot more solemn as it is the site of a horrific mass murder on a scale which is hard to fathom, whereas Dachau was more of a work camp, tho of course many died there as well. If I remember correctly you also need to be with a guide to visit Auschwitz 2/Berkinau (or at least that was the case when we went a decade ago) and it meant visitors were more respectful. My personal experience when visiting Dachau, where visitors can walk around on their own, was some people were not really appreciating the gravity of the site and not acting in a way I would consider respectful. I hope this can help you decide. I will say one more thing which is that even tho it was a decade ago, visiting Auschwitz really stayed with me and I still think about my visit all the time. I think it is hard for it not to have a lasting impression on those who visit.

I have not visited Auschwitz. If I had the opportunity, I would, but in my travels, that has not been a destination yet. That is not to say I am without solemn appreciation of what it is/was. It is also not lost on me that my mother and sister spent a large part of the war in Poland, away from what was happening in Germany. My grandfather, away at the war, spent many of his years in harsh conditions in Britain.
My wife and I were at Dachau fairly recently. Our visit there was what one might expect it to be. The place retains a grimness that hangs over the entirety of its open grounds, displays, and old buildings. We did not see anything that resembled inappropriate behavior amongst any of the many hundreds of people who were there while we were. I suppose that could have been different. I once watched someone practicably climb on Michelangelo's David to pose for a picture.
My takeaway was an affirmation. If you have that experience from Dachau, maybe you don't need to visit Auschwitz, but what could be the harm if you did?

I would think it depends upon your interest in the subject. Some people are just not interested in this piece of history or find the story too depressing.

The most memorable part of the Auschwitz visit to me was seeing the familiar scene of the train platform at Birkenau where people were sorted for immediate execution. Gut-wrenching. Dachau was memorable because it was right in the middle of an old and normal looking city. But then I was very familiar with the history of WWII and the Holocaust. Without that context, it might be less emotional. Two different experiences for me.

There are lots of other sights not covered by the tour. If you have the time to extend your trip to spend more time in Krakow, I would recommend it. The Schindler Factory Tour is very well presented, and you can visit the camp where Schindler's workers lived (I stumbled on it and wish I'd had a knowledgeable guide to take me through it). A lot people visit the salt mine with their extra time.

I have been to Dachau once (2004) and Auschwitz twice (2015 and 2022).

There's no comparison between the two of them from a historical context: Auschwitz was an extermination center and Dachau was a concentration camp/prison. This isn't to make light of what it must have been like for inmates of Dachau. However, the numbers tell the story: About 45,000 people died at Dachau and around 1.1 million people perished at Auschwitz.

From a traveler's perspective, the Auschwitz visit is sobering. Two things stick out. The Separation Platform in the Birkenau portion of Auschwitz is unforgettable. That's where millions of families from all over Europe saw each other for the last time. It's something people never forget. And the photographs in the Auschwitz I part of the Auschwitz complex are unforgettable. In one of the barracks, visitors see reproductions of the actual black-and-white photographs of the inmates taken by the Nazis. There are photos of perhaps thousands of inmates on a wall. Below the photos are details about the person: who he/she is, birth place, occupation, age, and death date; visitors see that the average life expectancy in Auschwitz was about one month. You will see the faces of the Holocaust staring back at you.

As a side note, I'm told what is known variously as Auschwitz III/Buna/Monowitz -- the massive industrial works that used slave laborers -- gets few visits and is also worth seeing.

For me, Auschwitz is a worthwhile experience and worth the time.

As the oldest concentration camp, Dachau, of course, should be on any itinerary. I remember the photos in the museum as well as the camp itself.

I have visited both camps. Auschwitz had a lasting effect because the it was a horrible death camp and a reminder of the horrors of WW11. Dachau seemed mild in comparison. I think the guided tour of Auschwitz is important to see. Schindlers tour is anticlimactic after the camp tour. With the time, I wish I had gone to the salt mines for a change of pace.

I agree with the other responses generally, but I want to add something.

I visited Dachau in 1990 and Auschwitz/Birkenau in 2019. I have no idea if the visit to Dachau has changed in 35 years (I imagine it has), but the experience of visiting the three camps (Dachau, Auschwitz, and Birkenau) was very different.

At Dachau, there was a main building with exhibits and a video, and after the video you were free to wander around and explore the camp on your own.

Birkenau was also mostly open to walk through freely at your own pace. And standing on the railroad tracks looking into the camp entrance was perhaps the most powerful, sobering moment of my visit to Auschwitz/Birkenau.

Visiting Auschwitz is a guided group tour. You don't have any opportunity to explore on your own or at your own pace. For me this was difficult, because I felt the need to absorb it privately, personally, and in my own time. Instead they march you past exhibits (piles of shoes, piles of hairbrushes), and you have to keep moving because there's another tour group right behind you. In the end, the experience didn't have as strong an impact on me as the other two camps.

That said, everyone will have a different experience, so I'm not trying to influence you one way or the other. I just think it's good to be prepared for what the visit is like.

Having been to Dachau, Sachsenhausen, Ravensbrück, and Bergen-Belsen, none of them compare in any way to Auschwitz. People died horrible deaths in all of the KZ, either from being worked to death, shot, starvation or disease, but they were not killed in huge masses like they were at Auschwitz, Sobibor or Treblinka.

I stood in Birkenau and looked to the left and right, and the barracks seemed like they went on forever. The vastness of this killing place is what got me. It is very sobering.

So, yes, if you have the time, I would go.

I have been to both. I expected Auschwitz-Birkenau experience to be similar to that of Dachau. To some extent, it is. But when I got to Birkenau and saw how big it was, with train tracks running forever in the middle and barrack huts on either side and then saw the remains of the crematoriums, the ruthless efficiency of Nazis and the scale of victims that perished there finally sunk in and saddened me immensely. Seeing the separation platform where the Nazi doctor made life and death decisions so casually with a flick of his thumb was another brutal reminder of the cruelty our species is capable of.

Auschwitz-Birkenau is not an easy visit, but I am really glad I took the time to visit it.

My visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial in 2010 left an indelible impression upon me. Fifteen years later I’m still transfixed. I’m scheduled to return this April. I’ve also visited Dachau.

Auschwitz is a largely intact death camp and frankly is much more menacing the the rebuilt Dachau. However some people don’t do well visiting these sites. It is a personal choice and while I think it’s important to never forget, it’s up to others how they want to do that.

I've been to Poland six times in the past twelve years and have also been to Dachau and some other camps besides but including Auschwitz, which is more impactful than the rest. If your tour doesn't include Schindler's Enamel Factory, I might recommend that over Auschwitz. That will give you an overview of what Krakow was like and the oppression under German rule during the war.

I have visited both, different trips, starting with Auschwitz. Each had a huge impact on me. At Auschwitz--the eerie thought that it felt, somewhat, like college dorms, the unsettling haunted sensation, the walls of photos, enormous (yet, just a drop in the bucket, really) glass displays of personal items and even a washroom that had been painted by the prisoners with pretty scenes--birds, a cat washing its face--that showed even when faced with a terrible fate they attempted to bring some beauty into their world. With my interest in WWII I felt it was important to tour both, and though they were not the most delightful days of either trip I did not feel I could visit Munich or Krakow without going.

I don't know if your tour includes time in Krakow--I really enjoyed it, and had a full 4 days there, so there's other reasons to stay an extra day or so there.

So I wouldn't figure"any need to extend our trip to see Auschwitz [in addition to Dachau]." If it's not a strong historical interest, there are other things in Krakow. I did go to Auschwitz but I am Jewish and had relatives who perished in the Holocaust. To visit, it was fairly crowded. [Side note, for a book about Holocaust tourism, consider "Nein Nein Nein" by Jerry Stahl. I think some people visit because they feel obligated or want the Birkenau train or Arbeit Macht Frei photo backdrops.]

I was at Auschwitz in 2004 and Dachau in 2018. Like others have said very well they are different types of camps and hence difference experiences for the visitor. To me Dachau was toured and Auschwitz felt more experienced if I dare. The emotions and experience will never leave me.