Most distressing place you visited for WWII

Lockstep

World War II had a lot of bad stuff happening. Anywhere you visited where the scale of what happened hit you like a lead hammer?

For me it was Auschwitz and Breendonk.

Latchy

I havent being to but believe the sight in the french graveyard of so many gravestones and cross's of the falling during the D-Day and other battles is very heartbreaking .

Leadership

Mine would be Belsen, Anne Franks grave brought a big lump in my throat. There is a large British Military base less than a mile from the site and I was posted there so I could not escape the place, even digging trenches on one exercise we came across a mass grave when we found lots of bones. We had to call in Rabi's to bless the land and section it off. I still think about it to this day!

The Normandy Beaches make me cry every time I visit probably being an ex soldier makes it much worse. The museaum in Arromanches always leaves me very moved.

tricky D

/sigh

Arromanches - so many white crosses and stars, as far as the eye can see. Soul wrenching stuff. Unforgetable.

FiSe

War graveyards, anywhere be it in Normandy, Italy, Czechoslovakia or in Glencree...
Theresienstadt near Prague, Dresden, Berlin, Wienna, South Moravia, Ukraine, Charkov...
Jaysus could go for ages, every place somehow connected to war has something mysteriously horrifyingly intresting and , yes, sad in its presence...

Was visiting a place of a Wellington crash with all crew dead a few months back, there's no trace of that tragedy anymore, just little monument. Was just standing there in the middle of that beautiful landscape and trying to feel the history of that place, quite overwhelming...
Better stop right now :rolleyes:

getz

years ago sailing through the darden hills just before istanbul you can see crosses for over a mile the turkish goverment looks after the war graves--they are from british soldiers in ww1--my grandfarther lost two brothers in the failed landings--both of them born in southern ireland ---it looks so beautiful but so sad

Fratton Fred

FiSe wrote: »

Was visiting a place of a Wellington crash with all crew dead a few months back, there's no trace of that tragedy anymore, just little monument. Was just standing there in the middle of that beautiful landscape and trying to feel the history of that place, quite overwhelming...
Better stop right now :rolleyes:

My mother's uncle died in a Wellington crash, he parachuted out but died from his wounds. He was found in a tree by the locals and never regained consciousness.

Although it is not WWII, I found the Menin Gate very moving, especially when they stop the traffic and play the last post.

Mahatma coat

I challenge even the most callous of individuals to stand in the middle of one of those wargraveyards and not get a lump in the throat.

the Beaches of Guadlcanal and Vanauatu are 2 places that do it for me, pristine Tropical paradises that once ran red with the blood of young men from all sides of the conflict.

Fratton Fred

Mahatma coat wrote: »

I challenge even the most callous of individuals to stand in the middle of one of those wargraveyards and not get a lump in the throat.

the Beaches of Guadlcanal and Vanauatu are 2 places that do it for me, pristine Tropical paradises that once ran red with the blood of young men from all sides of the conflict.

I visited the one in Kanchanaburi in North west Thailand, the town with the imfamous bridge over the river Kwai.

Its amazing, you are in the middle of a typical Thai town, hot, humid, lots of noise and activity, then you walk through the gates of the cemetary and there is this sudden tranquility. All the dust and noise of outside is gone in two paces.

They don't use the traditional white portland stone for the commonwealth graves there (Or in the middle east i believe) they use a kind of plaque as it is stronger in the looser dusty soil, but other than that, you could be in Northern France such is the lush greenery.

ollaetta

I was getting through Auschwitz fairly ok until I saw a child's knitted jumper in a glass display case. Afterwards the scale of Birkenau and those railway tracks through the archway really freaked me.

I agree with those that find the war cemeteries moving and there are many other sites in France that really get you thinking. None more so than Oradour sur Glane where they have left the village exactly as it was on the day in June 44 when the Das Reich SS murdered the entire population.

Grizzly 45

Flanders ,Arromaches cemetary ,Omaha beach itself.
Saint Nikolaus church war memorial Hamburg.Too see vitrified poreclin [the stuff sinks and toilets are made of] MELTED.Just gives you an idea of what horrendous heat there must have been in that firestorm.

marcsignal

Some Pics of DACHAU Concentration Camp.

Entrance

Main Gate

Hanging Posts

Crematorium

Gas Chamber (Apparently never used)

Guard Tower

Main Gate from Inside

Memmorial Statue @ Crematorium

Ovens in Crematorium1

Ovens in Crematorium2

Agent Smith

Auschwitz, by far


i just felt so cold going in there...

Sephiroth_dude

sachsenhausen in berlin,very eerie place and cold,not nice at all.the momument to the soviets is an ugly looking thing.

arnhem44

for me it would be the Arizona in Pearl Harbor,people throughing flower in to the water and people crying,a really errie calm is found over the wreck and then the Jewish Holocaust museum in Berlin,sad reading about the victims and seeing belongings and so on

Berlin for me.

Ruu_Old

Walked through Dachau, so much pain and despair on peoples faces. Chilling, no other words for it. Looked at the various towers around the site, very ominous, even to this day.

honeymonster

Ive been to Auschwitz. That place freaked me out. You get to stand in one of the gas chambers.

caspermccormack

honeymonster wrote: »

Ive been to Auschwitz. That place freaked me out. You get to stand in one of the gas chambers.

Went there last year, left a big impression on me, puts things into perspective. Chilling place, after the Auschwitz we where brought to Birkenau, when you see the wooden huts that housed hundreds and then see the field behind them where only the chimneys stand in there place, bring a tear to your eye.

Papa_Lazarou

Ruu wrote: »

Walked through Dachau, so much pain and despair on peoples faces. Chilling, no other words for it. Looked at the various towers around the site, very ominous, even to this day.

I was in dachau two years ago. Probaby the motr emotional i have got in quite a while. The day we visited the whole place was in a carpet of fog that just made it that bit more hard to take in.Slowly as we walked down the main pathway where the housing units use to be it was just such an eery feeling as everthing was revealed.

Funkstard

Auschwitz above others for me. The first rain and heavy cloud I experienced on the whole trip descended down just as we arrived there. Seeing the claw marks on the concrete walls of one of the gas chambers..was like being in a horror film.

Also, the American cemetery at Omaha Beach. It's just so sprawling and endless that the scale is hard to grasp. Pretty moving to say the least.

Micky Dolenz

caspermccormack wrote: »

Went there last year, left a big impression on me, puts things into perspective. Chilling place, after the Auschwitz we where brought to Birkenau, when you see the wooden huts that housed hundreds and then see the field behind them where only the chimneys stand in there place, bring a tear to your eye.

The whole place is evil, the standing cells, Block 11, the little cell where a polish officer engraved a perfect picture of Jesus. What hit me the hardest was seeing a perfect plait that must have been cut of some girls head, the thought of her mother, spending time doing her daughters hair just to end up in hell made me cry with dispair and disgust on how, as a race we could treat each other. Makes me very sad and angry now even thinking about it.

gerrybbadd

Ya Definately Auschwitz for me too. I remember mates showing me pictures and that before going, but damn, when they bring you into some of the rooms, with all the hair, and shoes, then it really hit me. I even seen a pair of child's sandals that belonged to someone that couldn't have been more than 2 years of age.

Also, the gas chamber is really freaky to just stand in and imagine what was going through the people's minds as the door closed behind them, and the room got dark, except for the shafts of light coming from the ceiling where the Zyclon B was put in.

Stev_o

For me it was the German Graveyard at La Cambe in Normandy. Was on a small tour about 12 or so people all Americans bar myself and my family. We'd go through the usual places including the Allied War graves. Then as we were driving through the back roads the tour guide said over to our right is the German war grave. My father asked could we take a look so we pulled had a look around. Now there's nothing different from this place then any other war grave but to me it just felt so empty, think there was about 10 other people there and the Americans who were with us really didn't give a crap about the place. That kind of lack of respect to the dead just kinda hit me hard and it was just a indescribable emotion.

Dr Strange

Stev_o,

there is a German War cemetery in Glencree, Co. Wicklow. It's well worth a visit and they (German Embassy, German War Graves Commission etc.) organise an annual wreath laying ceremony each year on Germany's National Day of Mourning. There's usually mass at the small chapel before the wreath laying and also some talks on different topics after the ceremony in the Glencree Centre for Reconciliation. During the year there are sporadic visits and wreath laying ceremonies by the German Navy when visiting Dublin.

pieface_ie

I've seen the site at glencree but can someone please tell me the history behind it

Dr Strange

pieface_ie wrote: »

I've seen the site at glencree but can someone please tell me the history behind it

Hi,

you can google it, lots of information.

Have a look here:

http://www.glencree.ie/site/german_rem_day.html

http://www.glencree.ie/site/history.htm (scroll down to read about the cemetery history)

http://www.irishwarmemorials.ie/html/place-details.php?show=122

Also see this document:

www.glencree.ie/site/documents/TheGermanMilitaryCemetery.doc

Best,
Preusse