[Cronos]

I live in Warsaw - trust me, the pictures will not convey anything more than you can google

The difference is when you VISIT.

Even if you visit in bright summer, there is something eerie about the place. you can sense death there

Google it for pictures, but fly here for a visit -- you can get cheap charter tickets and for Americans its visa on arrival

If your daughter wants to really do the World-War II tour of Poland I would suggest the following itinerary:

• Fly to Warsaw -
  1. visit the Old Town and the Jewish cemetery.
  2. In the Old Town you will see on every corner a little cross in stone with writing in Polish on it - this says "In this place in DD-MM-194y X number of Poles were killed by Germans" - start your walk from the corner of Świętokrzyska and Krakowskie Przedmieście and walk towards the Old town.
  3. Stop and see the monuments that will show you the level of destruction the Germans visited on the place -- the entire "Old" Town was rebuilt 1946-1960 as the Germans destroyed everything
  4. at the New Town, turn left and go to the Jewish cemetery - you can take a bus 180
  5. There is the Jewish museum on the way, but skip it for now (or permanently -- I find the museum a disappointment, but more on that later) and head to the cemetery
  6. view especially the monuments at the entrance, there is a very moving verse written by a Jewish survivor that reads “My grandma Masza had twenty grandchildren, my grandma Hana had eleven of them. I was the only one to survive. Jacek Eisner.”
  7. “In memory of one million Jewish children murdered by Nazi German barbarians, 1939-1945. Jack Eisner, founder, sponsor.”
  8. Then head to the Warsaw Uprising museum
  9. Go back to the Old Town to compare the damage
  
  
  I don't like the Jewish museum - Polin - I find it badly arranged in the modern style of more show than trying to tell a narrative. It doesn't show much more than glimpses of the 1000 year history of Jews in Poland
  
  
• Go to Kraków by train
  1. visit the old town in kraków
  2. Go to the Jewish quarter, Kazimierz
  3. take a train to Auschwitz and be prepared to be very depressed
  4. the next day go to the salt mines of Wieliczka - it will give you something a bit more uplifting

[Skooz]

Thank you. I plan on visiting sometime in the next couple of years and your post is quite helpful.

[MuttTheHoople]

One of the uplifting events that occurred was the Jewish slave labor sabotaging Nazi armaments. Many an American GI owes their lives to artillery shells that were duds, or rifle misfired, because the Jewish slave labor messed something up when the guards weren’t looking.