The Trip I Always Dreaded – but it hit me in an unexpected way

A trip to Auschwitz – Birkenau

For years, I dreaded it. For decades, I’ve spoken about it, yet tried to ignore it. I made my excuses. Maybe, I’m just not ready, I would say. I kept promising to go and hid it away in a mind box and compartmentalised it. It was finally my time to confront it, so I went with my two children to visit Auschwitz Birkenau.

I’ve been writing an historical novel that’s set in Warsaw at the time of the Warsaw Ghetto. I needed to visit Auschwitz Birkenau to further m...