Berlin to Auschwitz
 

doing quite a eurotrip this summer and wondering if its possible to do a daytrip from berlin to Auschwitz? or prague to Auschwitz?
...if not, where is best to stay in Auschwitz overnight, as a student?

Auschwitz (Oswiecim in Polish) is about 20+ miles west of Krakow, Poland. Not possible as a day trip from either Berlin or Prague. Krakow would be the place for an overnight stay.

Sachsenhausen would be a more logical destination from Berlin, Terezin from Prague.

yikes, lets not be snide with the youngin's. Good for you carlylewis23 for planning such an adventure. the fodorites will come through for you!!

But I do kind of wonder why people don't do just 10 minutes of basic research that could answer a whole bunch of questions all at once. As opposed to asking anonymous strangers who might give a totally wrong answer to your question either out of their own ignorance or just for the heck of it.

Hey, but it's at least better to ask at a website like Fodor's than to do nothing at all.

It's pretty bad to do nothing at all - just arrive and expect things where you assumed them to be.

I don;t get at least looking at a map when planning a trip.

(This reminds me of all the people coming to NYC who want to just pop up and look at Niagara Falls - never look at a map to see that it's hundreds of miles - and 8 hours - away.)

Reminds me of some friends of ours for France. They got a package deal to Florida for their first trip to the USA. They called and asked if we'd like to meet them halfway somewhere for lunch some afternoon. We live in Maryland--they didn't realize half way would be about 600 miles!

Social! Posters are lonely or want contact with others. They know the answers but still like to ask. I love Fodors.....It is peopled with real people. We communicate! Ask silly questions...what should I wear in Paris? Can I ask for a small pizza in Rome? Do women use male toilets if they are empty?

Carly

though Sachsenhausen is about 20 miles north of Berlin and easily accessible by train it in no way compares to Auschwitz-Birkenau near Krakow, Poland

But i visited Sachsenhausen recently and think that any former concentration camp does the same thing to do - gives you a chilling first-hand sobering look at the state-sponsored genocide and slave labor that went on really not that long ago, and in one of the world's most 'civilized' countries

Most of the buildings are gone but there are lots of interpretive signs and there is still the gas chambers, etc.

Be sure to go and in Berlin itself Plotzensee Prison was where Nazis tortured and then hung on meat hooks and killed their political enemies such as those involved in the plot to assasinate Hitler

the meat hooks are still there in a bleak room

And Berlin's Topography of Terrors in an old SS HQ i think documents the reign of Nazi terror

So those Auschwitz is even much more horrific due to its size and the sheer numbers killed there any concentration camp will be a lasting if not happy memory

Take the train or S-Bahn to Sachsenhause and then it's about a mile walk from the train station

CarlyLewis

I echo everthing that PalenQ says about Berlin and Sachsenhausen. Both of us have discussed the latter here before and it will make an impression on you.

You will the leave the camp and the other places that PalenQ has mentioned with many different and sombre thoughts and feelings.

Bill

<i>and there is still the gas chambers</i>

Not from the information I gathered, although I was not the the site. A distinction should be made between gas ovens and gas chambers, however ghoulish that may sound. Sachsenhausen was not an extermination camp.

<i>and there is still the gas chambers</i>

Not from the information I gathered, although I was not at the site. A distinction should be made between gas ovens and gas chambers, however ghoulish that may sound. Sachsenhausen was not an extermination camp.

Well you may be right

but there was a hole in the ground with remains of what i remember signs saying was a gas chamber - some of the tours by staff go there

but i'm not clear - i'll have to do some research on it

Though not an extermination camp i think executions took place there - many of the inmates actually worked at a nearby industry