Visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau: Our Personal Experience and Reflections

Visiting Auschwitz is an experience no words can truly prepare you for. It’s moving, haunting, and essential to understand. In this post, we share our personal reflections on taking an Auschwitz-Birkenau guided tour in Poland: what we saw, what we felt, and why it matters to remember.

Planning Our Visit to Auschwitz

We’d been in Poland since Friday, and knew we couldn’t skip visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau. Booking a guided tour wasn’t easy: all English-language groups were sold out, even two weeks ahead. So we split up—Jelena joined a Russian-language group at 11:45, and I joined a German-language group at 12:00.

If you plan to visit Auschwitz, **book early**—especially for guided tours in your language.

Arriving at Auschwitz on a Sunny Day

The weather was beautiful: warm, clear skies, almost surreal in contrast to the place we were entering. Sunshine couldn’t soften the chill that crept down our spines. Walking those grounds, the silence felt heavy. Barbed wire, brick walls, watchtowers—everything seemed to hold stories.

Standing on the Birkenau Ramp

On the ramp at Auschwitz II-Birkenau, the reality struck hard. This was the platform where families were separated on arrival. The elderly, children, disabled, and weak sent one way—the strong another. That moment was often the last time families ever saw each other.

Our own split that day—Jelena in one group, me in another—suddenly felt painfully symbolic. Except we knew we’d meet again in a few hours. They never did.

Stories of Survival and Loss

The guided tour lasted nearly three hours: detailed, emotional, overwhelming. Among the horror, our guide also shared rare stories of survival. One mother was sent to Germany to work before the camp was liberated; her three children remained in Auschwitz. Miraculously, six months after her liberation, she found them alive.

But most stories ended in silence.

Yet even those who didn’t survive found ways to speak: hidden notes, buried messages, smuggled pages. Their voices live on.

Why Remembering Auschwitz Matters

No film or book can truly prepare you for being there. It’s beyond words. But I had to try. Because remembering matters.

If you plan to visit Poland, I encourage you to take the time to see Auschwitz-Birkenau in person. It’s not easy—but it’s necessary.

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*Have you ever visited Auschwitz? Feel free to share your thoughts or questions below.*