Oswiecim is the Polish name for the village that was taken over by the German Auschwitz. How can you review a visit to one of the most horrible places in history? Comment, rather than review I guess.

First of all, you can get there by bus or rail for 1/10th the cost of the official tours! We headed there from Katowice, also with the Canadian and Kiwi beach volleyball teams! Nice to see them not taking things too seriously at 17… A change in some seriously Polish sounding place added to the excitement as tourists funnelled from place to place. From Oswiecim station, you can get a service bus for next to nothing, or a taxi for more!

Auschwitz – you can’t say it was good – it was tastefully set up, meaningful, important. Interesting people watching. Those who mulled around in pairs or themselves seemed to take things on board a lot more, being moved and showing respect. The parties with the guides could have been anywhere, stomping rounding with noise and photography.

Nearly every “barrack” here has a theme. The French and Roma ones being done extremely well. Very well set out, informative, moving. You have so much to take in here. Some of the more striking exhibitions (? memorials) are the walls of ID photos, stockpile of hair, rooms of shoes, suitcases and pots. The suitcases were labelled or tagged, names are powerful. The room of artificial limbs stood out too, even though there were obviously less than shoes etc.

Block 11 – the death block has the cells, bullet holed walls, info on torture and death, but also on escape! Astonishingly, even with this extreme oppression there were flickers of hope, with people escaping and ferrying support back and forth from the outside. Amazing.

You can get a free shuttle bus to Birkenau – with its infamous railway tracks. Birkenau is much bigger but hasn’t been developed – which is a good thing. The sheer scale of the place is shocking. You need a day to explore, process, contemplate…