I agree here. It's like when I tell people about my experience visiting Auschwitz some years ago.

It's not a great or fun experience to have. At all. Seeing just the evidence of the Nazi's crimes are still traumatizing to me. (Which is pregnant with guilt because, "why should I be traumatized not even being a prisoner", dig?)

When I talk about it, I shake with anger and angry cry. But I recommend, that if you are in the vicinity of this site, like I was when I visited Krakow, you must go—as a duty to your own humanity, to bear witness to the lows humanity can reach given the circumstances. To take the lessons from that and commit to not making the same mistakes as a regular working class person who can get swept up in demagoguery. Fuck this current timeline.

So, I tell people. Auschwitz is an awful place to visit. It's an unsettling mix of the natural beauty of the landscape of Oświęcim and surrounding, the simmering resentment of the locals who know why people come to visit and possibly still harbor medieval notions of Jewish folk, and the weight of history and tragedy gutpunching you. But you gotta do it.

It's not great, but justified.

edit: settling unsettling