Robert Jan van Pelt

Arrive at Auschwitz a Tourist, Leave As a Traveler

My 2013 edition of Lonely Planet’s “Europe on a Shoestring” ranks Auschwitz third in “Poland Highlights” — trailing behind the gnome statues of the city of Wrocław, but ahead of the city of Gdańsk. As a Holocaust historian and architectural historian of Auschwitz, I have visited the death camp at least 80 times since my…