Not the first Auschwitz story..
I live in Poland. My father visits occasionally, and on one of those occasions he said "I really want to visit Auschwitz, so we did.
Anyone who has ever done the Polish Museum Experience in a coach party will testify to the fact that they (the Poles - sorry for the massive generalisation, but this one is mostly true)are really good at that kind of thing, with audio guides, information, directions etc.
However - if you are visiting as an individual, or a bloke and his venerable pa, there is basically nothing for you. Nic, nichts, nada, niente, rien, nowt. It's the same at the museum of the Warsaw Uprising, the War Museum... all of them, as far as I can tell.
I have checked my impression with many Polish friends, and they say the same. Go with a big bunch, or you're fucked.
So - we did the best we could. Dad can walk up to 50 metres without resting, and he likes a clue or two about what he is looking at, where to go, what's next, that kind of thing. We saw what we could find, we listened to the birds not singing, we didn't see half the stuff we knew was there, and there was no-one around to ask.
After 90mins of stumbling over cobbles, my father turned to me and said (with a COMPLETELY straight face - bearing in mind he knew people who died there) "I can't help thinking that this place would be better organised if the Germans were still running it".
I hope that the people who saw us clinging to each other, helpless with suppressed laughter, thought that they were witnessing a very different display of emotion.
This is not a story I can easily relate in Poland.
Incidentally, two days after we were there, some fucker nicked 'the' sign. It wasn't us.
( blyerkit e k trilby, Thu 22 Jul 2010, 23:33, 4 replies)

My grandfather died at Auschwitz.
He fell out of his guard tower.

(oh god, I'm so sorry)
( Colonel Boris "...a desperate Buzzfeed imitation...", Fri 23 Jul 2010, 0:11, closed)

Nah only kidding



He only broke his leg
(Frottage cheese, Fri 23 Jul 2010, 17:24, closed)

*click*
I chuckled.
( flake has nothing against your right leg, Fri 23 Jul 2010, 0:15, closed)

Oh this one is HORRIBLE
...and I'm trying very hard to not completely lose it laughing.


And failing.

*click very hard*
(The 2-Belo OH SHI--[Sound of impact][End of recording], Fri 23 Jul 2010, 10:30, closed)