A few years ago I finally got to visit a place that has haunted my imagination for years. It is difficult to explain why someone would want to visit the places that I visited on this particular trip. As a child I was brought up with images of John Mills escaping from Colditz, and Steve McQueen trying to escape the Nazis on a motorbike. But in 1981 - barely a teenager and travelling alone for the first time - I first learnt of the Holocaust while visiting Dachau Concentration Camp with my uncle (he was living and working in Munich). I asked something like,
'Is this where the British soldiers were kept prisoner?', and he took a deep breath and did his best to explain.
Since then I have always tried to tune in when a good documentary is on television, for example:
The Nazis: A Warning From History (1997), or read with interest when someone visits these notorious sites. Steiner, a founder member of the Saloon, visited Auschwitz in 2005. In the thread where Steiner posted his images, over at Saloon (V1.0), Raoul commented that Steiner had bought the 'Atrocity Tour of Europe package', well, here are my photographs from a similar package...
During my visit to Poland I stayed in the beautiful city of Krakow, although I was not sure about some of the souvenirs that were on offer at the tourist shops.
We stayed in a hostel based in Silesian House. A building which we discovered during our stay had been used by the Gestapo during Nazi Germany’s occupation of Poland.
The basement of Silesian House still contains the cells which were used to imprison and torture prisoners. Prisoners no longer remain there, but their graffiti does.
When Steven Spielberg made Schindler's List (1993) he shot on location in Krakow. I thought he may have chosen any factory to represent Schindler's, so I was surprised to discover that Spielberg had filmed at the actual factory that Schindler had owned.Schindler's factory back then...
Schindler's factory in the film...In this scene a daughter looks on as her parents are escorted through the gates of Schindler’s factory; earlier she had pleaded with Schindler to add them to his list.
Schindler's factory today...This was a strangely moving experience. Standing at the entrance through which people had walked hoping to avoid the horrors of what was happening outside. The sense of hope at this location - which is essentially a nondescript side street - was almost tangible. 
One performance that was hard to forget in Schindler’s List was Ralph Feinnes’ portrayal of Amon Goeth. Goeth was the commandant of Plaszow Labour Camp.Plaszow Labour Camp then...
The site of Plaszow Labour Camp today...
Nearby is Goeth's former residence...
...and the rather disturbing graffiti on the gate...
My next destination took me a couple of hours to reach – I took the wrong turning, drove miles along straight roads that cut through forests, and ended up asking for directions to Oswiecim, which is more widely known by its German name: Auschwitz.
My first stop was Auschwitz II-Birkenau. Mainly because I thought it would be harder to find, far from the city centre in the middle of nowhere, but after a quick bite to eat near the train station I headed off in the direction that the signposts were pointing, but about two minutes later I was surprised to see the gatehouse (described as the ‘The Death Gate’ on the museum’s website) that appears in so many photographs,
'We're here already?'Looking west out over the camp from the top floor of the gatehouse; a party of schoolchildren are gathered around a guide on the 'unloading ramp' learning about the 'selektions' that took place there...
Looking east from the top floor of the gatehouse; the edge of town clearly visible at the top of the picture...
The end of the line...