Not All It Should Be

Krakow

I went to Auschwitz today. I wasn't going to but everyone I've met over the last couple of days told me "you've just, like, got to go" so I jumped on the train to the little town of Oswiecim and took a look around.

It's a big site and it would take a couple of days to do it all properly but one afternoon was enough for me. It's grimly impressive, but finding a quiet spot to take it all in was nearly impossible without some tourists barging in to film everything. The punishment cells and gas chambers made my hair stand up, at least until some fat Americans came round the corner chattering away. Why do people feel the need to take pictures of themselves in a dimly lit, dank place where thousands of people died? Are they going to put on a slide show for the neighbours when they get home? And why do Israeli tourists insist on carry huge flags as they walk around? I should have brought some of them down to earth by making the watchtower joke, but like so many things for once it wasn't appropriate. Instead I kept my camera firmly in my pocket and solemnly ambled around, hoping it might rub off on the other people, but unsurprisingly it didn't.

In the end the best bit was the exhibition about Poland itself during the war, the resistance movement and the Warsaw uprising. Lots of interesting displays and no tourists. If only it was all like that.