How can you expect anyone to take your biased comments seriously?

do you mean because i am not a nazi.

Right. So if someone is appalled over the tourism of Auschwitz, that automatically makes them a nazi. Is there enough padded cells in the world for people like you?

have you ever been there? to say its a tourist trap would be a mistake.

just for reference, this is a tourist trap:


i'm not sure it has the same bearing as this:

It's clearly less brash. It was a concentration camp, afterall.

Just don't forget to visit the gift store as you leave.

yeah...I don't thikn I'd like to visit a place where people were massacred. Not exactly my thing...ya know?

in israel in 11th and 12 grade you have the option to go. i went. unfortunatly most of the messages were "see what happened to us, thats why in a year you should go into the army to protect your people blah blah blah" but all in all i thought is was a very enriching trip. and i really dont think that going to the torture chamber in auschwitz, or standing in a gas chamber in maidanik is a real touristy thing. most of my family were murdered at those places and i think they act as a reminder not only as europes not so distant past, but as a reminder for what humanity is capable of.

Damn, SuchFriends you are way off. Did you really think the Germans left the camps up to brag about it?! ...

no. I think there are a few germans who, because they remain, brag about them. Neo-Nazism is on the rise in Germany, and further, there are old folks alive in Germany who were Nazis..

I understand that most folks who go are going to grieve for relatives, but there is a tourist industry around it, sincere or not, and it is a bit distasteful. And again, I just simply don't like the buildings and the barbed wire, I respectfully disagree with the entire thing, fully understanding other people's sentiments. Ironically, the person who got the least offended at this thread was the person who said his own relatives perished in these camps, maybe all you folks who took things way to personal and acted like jerks could take a note. much thanks and love fugazifan, for yr relatives and all the millions who passed, God Have Mercy and Peace on their Souls.

I didn't read the entire thread, your first post came off as if you thought Germany was proud of what they did.
Anyways I think most 'tourists' consist out of schools, I went to one of those camps as a school-trip and trust me it's quite shocking. These camps are still here to remind us of what happened and to never let something like that happen again. I mean, I certainly learned something out of all of it after I went there, Y'know? k, whatever too drunk.

you act like people are going in there with fanny packs and licking hitler pops.

christ.

to torch a place down and resurrect it as something totally different is just making the past easier to swallow. this is something that shouldn't be easy to swallow. it's an extremely harsh reality, as it should remain. nothing else would have a greater effect.

like fugazifan, a lot of my family were murdered in the camps. i'd personally feel i'd gain a lot spiritually by going, and i fully plan to when i study in europe in a few years.

what is great about germany compared to other countries is that instead of burying their past they have accepted it and done a lot to change the attrocities of not so long ago. keeping up the camps in germany and poland shows a lot about a country who can say, this is who we were but not who we are. there are always going to be people that use things like that for other purposes, but most neo nazis try to deny the holocaust.
but the fact that they remain up forever remind us of what humanity can and will be. its too bad that other countries dont admit their faults as much as germany, for example turkey with the armenian holocaust a few years prior. or even worst and probably the saddest tis the appartheid in israel that although is not a holocaust, feels very much like germany in the early 30's, or something along those lines. and i hope that when the occupation ends, whenever that will be, we will be a strong as germany is try to do whatever we can to correct the wrongs of our past.

can you please tell me more about the topic or at least provide me with some links? I am not informed enough and would like to know more about the current situation.