Anyone been to Auschwitz?

Yes, many years ago.
Powerful,emotional experience

This is interesting/ helpful, if not already seen

http://auschwitz.org/en/visiting/

I'd advise going a quiet time of day as when it's busy it detracts from the experience, it feels like a tourist attraction.
Which it kind of is, realistically speaking, but you know what I mean. I assume you'll be in Krakow, recommend the salt mine.

Have to agree with JC, I was moved but nowhere near as much as when on the same trip visited Birkenau

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http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/images/auschgate.jpg

Problem with Auschwitz it was rammed with tourists the guide hardly gave to time to stop & ponder what he was saying & what you saw, possibly best if you went round in a more personal small tour where your given more time, Birkenau really moved me though, the bleakness of it all, how the trains pulled in & you you were either sent straight to the gas chambers or to work, Krakow itself is a great city,

Was there in November. As said above, it gets very, very busy (I think it was the biggest growing attraction in Poland last year). My advice would be to go on an organised tour from Krakow (assume that's where you are staying). Don't get one that does a hotel pickup as they just go around all the hotels taking an hour of your day. Plenty of booking agents and cost is about 100zl (same cost for salt mines) and you will find a place easily this time of year.

Poland is absolutely stunning as a place. If you want to get more out of your trip do lots of reading / youtube on the history of what you intend to do - it really adds to the trip. There is loads of history about the country (it was put to me that this is because they have been invaded throughout history). If you are interested about the Nazis and their time, learn about what went on where - you can actually go to places around Krakow where you might have seen a picture of a German tank outside the building in 1940. Brings history to life. I also learned loads - for example Auschwitz had 3 camps, but one is gone now. On the trip you visit both camps 1 & 2.

In Krakow the centre is pictureque but is stag party central at weekends. There are loads of bars just outside the centre, and loads of fabulous restaurants. Use TripAdvisor, and definitely try Polish cuisine.

The one bar good for a laugh is the vodka bar in Krakow. The main square has another smaller square next to it full of street food trolleys. Go to the top of there and turn right, about 100 yards along on the corner. Get a tray of 6 mixed vodkas. Excellent. Get 2 trays and you will sleep very well.

Money lasts forever. Beer is about £2 a pint generally. Obviously the tourist traps are a bit more. The most I paid for a pint was £3.60, the least £1.20 (in Gdansk). The beer is very nice too.

Enjoy it. I loved the place.

Ive been,its a lot to take in how evil the nazis were...

Dont waste your time with a silly 'tourist trip' like shab suggests.

Get out of bed early in the morning find yourself a good taxi driver and hire him for the day. Your dont need a tour guide, your driver will take you to Aushwitz then Birkenau and better to take it in in your own time not be pushed about by a guide.

I've been to Krakow and agree with all said above, and the salt mines are well worth a visit. Pretty mind-blowing stuff, especially the cathedral bit at the end, take time to study the detail of everything on the walls down there, some amazing sculptures

i don't even go to the corner shop anymore. chavs are everywhere.

I worked with a woman in the late 1970's, and her husband was one of the first soldiers into Aushwitz after the war was over.

He was a bandsman and not a frontline soldier, but was asked to go into the camp to help. He went into Aushwitz a fit and healthy man, but with rampant disease, came out with every illness under the sun.

He was wheelchair bound for the rest of his life. Makes you think what the Jewish people had to put up with.

Can highly recommend the book "if this is a man" by Primo Levi, harrowing to say the least.

The advantage of a guide, unless you maybe get some good guidebook or something, is they can give context about what happened here and there and so on. Like you might walk past a wall and not realise that's where they shot people or what happened in this cell. If I remember right, group I was in we all had those radio ear things and guide spoke into mic as we walked around in a group. Not sure if some areas are guide only which happens some places. Ideal would be a small group with a good guide who didn't rush things, not a huge one.

agree with just checking...it was a lovely warm spring day when i visited, and not too busy...seemed very strange walking around in the sunshine, so very different from the sort of bleak,snowbound images you generally see on old newsreel or photographs...it's a sobering experience wandering around there when you consider the things that occurred there only a short while ago really, in the grand scheme of things...

I went there and was in a group of about a dozen. The young woman guide spoke clearly, precisely, intelligently and without emotion. She gave all the time necessary to see properly what the place was all about.
I think everyone should visit Auschwitz, in the hope that lessons will continue to be learned.

It doesn't matter that lots of tourists are there, the reverence and respect is overwhelming. You cannot fail to be horrified and moved.

Went to Bergen-Belsen quite a few years ago. If you`re near one of these places you should go, just to remind you how evil people can be, and that we should be really grateful that Germany lost.