Auschwitz death camp was in operation from
May 1940 until its liberation by Soviet
forces in January 1945. It is estimated
that 2.1 to 2.5 million people were killed
in the gas chambers during that time, of
whom 2 million were Jews and the remainder
were Poles, Gypsies and Soviet POWs. But
this estimate is considered by historians
to be strictly a minimum, because the total
number of deaths at Auschwitz and its sister
camp Birkenau can never really be known.
It is clear that Auschwitz-Birkenau was
considered by the Germans to be one of their
most efficient extermination centers as
early as 1941 when the mortuary crematorium
at the Auschwitz main camp was adapted as
a gas chamber. Additional huts, called “bunkers,”
were added around January 1942 and were
especially active in the autumn of 1944
when extra capacity was needed for the systematic
murder of Hungarian Jews and the liquidation
of the ghettos. Between January 1942 and
March 1943 over 175,000 Jews were gassed
to death here, their bodies burned in open
pits nearby.
By early 1943 it was clear that Hitler’s
SS were using Auschwitz as a mass-murder
factory. Twin pairs or state of the art
gas chambers using Zyklon-B gas were opened
in March and April 1943. The capacity of
these crematoria was 4,420 persons. Once
inside the chambers it took about 20 minutes
for the gas to kill this number of people.
The killings took place in the underground
chambers and the bodies were carried to
five crematoria ovens on an electrically
operated lift. Before cremation, gold teeth,
jewelry, and other valuables were removed
from the corpses. Captured Jews, known as
“sonderkommandos” were forced
to work the crematoria under SS supervision.
Anyone who has visited Auschwitz-Birkenau
is struck by the overwhelming sense of melancholy
and foreboding; visitors have been known
to break down in tears for no apparent reason
and many have to abandon their tour groups
without ever completing the tour. Visitors
are struck not only by the horrific memory
of the place, but also by the effect it
has on the present day: birds still refuse
to sing in the trees surrounding the death
camps and there is little evidence of a
thriving natural environment anywhere nearby.
The silence, as they saw, is deafening,
even after all these years.
People have reported cold spots and areas
of intense emotional concentration. Photographs
over the years have revealed the presence
of spirit manifestations in the form of
misty apparitions, shadows, light anomalies
and orbs. Given its history and the imprint
of horror it leaves on the modern mind,
Auschwitz-Birkenau is the most haunted place
on earth.
No. 2: Whitechapel/Spittalfields, London
East End, London, England.
The Whitechapel / Spittalfields area of
East London has been actively settled since
Roman times. Many of the historic buildings
are built on the remains of old Roman settlements.
Throughout the Dark and Middle Ages, the
East End was a burgeoning commerce area,
mostly inhabited by Anglos and Jewish moneylenders.
In Elizabethan times the East End looked
and smelled like something right out of
one of Shakespeare’s history plays,
and, in fact, the character of Falstaff
(Henry V) is said to have been based on
an innkeeper from the notorious East End.
It was a place of soldiers and prostitutes,
brawls and bawdy houses.
The coming of high Victorian morals did
nothing to dull this seedy reputation and
the Whitechapel / Spittalfields area, while
known to humanitarians for its extreme poverty,
was also known to all as the home of thieves,
prostitutes, and the most derelict of English
society.
In 1888 the Whitechapel area of London was
the scene of some of the most brutal murders
ever recorded: the famous Jack the Ripper
crimes. Yet the murders – and the
identity of Jack – remain unsolved,
even today. Many assert that the killer
was a doctor or was somehow connected to
the medical profession; others believe the
killer to have been Queen Victoria’s
grandson, Prince Albert Victor, though nothing
substantial has ever arisen to support the
theory.
Five women, all of them poor prostitutes,
were slaughtered by the mysterious Jack
in the span of just four months, known collectively
as “The Autumn of Terror.” Four
of the women – Mary Nicholls, Annie
Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes
– were found in various streets and
alleys throughout Whitechapel horribly disfigured
and mutilated. The fifth – Mary Kelly
– was the only victim murdered in
an interior location; as such she was the
most horribly mutilated, the death scene
like something from a slaughterhouse.
Jack the Ripper enjoyed a brief career as
London’s most infamous serial murder
and the fact that he was never caught still
adds to the mystery surrounding him. Nevertheless,
it is thought that his horrible mutilation
of Mary Kelly was his last act of violence
and there is no evidence that Jack, whoever
he may have been, killed again after November
1888.
Today visitors to London’s East End
can walk the streets that Jack prowled and
visit pubs and other locations he may have
haunted in life – and death. Walking
tours of the area are very popular and although
Jack’s legacy is certainly the most
enduring. Other ghosts that haunt the East
End are those of Jack’s victims, in
various stages of mutilation; a ghostly
band of Roman soldiers; a murderous sea
captain’s ghost that haunts a local
pub; and a mysterious black carriage drawn
by ghastly white horses that approaches
without a sound and disappears right before
your eyes. These and other haunts, combined
with the long haunted history of the East
End make it one of the must visit ghostly
locations in the world.
No. 3: Underground
Vaults, Edinburgh, Scotland.
Far below the busy streets of modern Edinburgh
lies a dark, forgotten corner of history.
Discovered in the mid-1980’s, the
Edinburgh Vaults had been abandoned for
nearly two hundred years. Lying beneath
the South Bridge, a major Edinburgh passage,
the rooms were used as cellars, workshops
and even as residences by the businesses
that plied their trade on the busy bridge
above. Abandoned soon after they were
built due to excessive water and moisture,
the vaults remain, unaltered, never illuminated
by the light of day.
The South Bridge has stood since 1785
and it was around this time that the huge
supporting arches were first divided for
use by nearby businesses. The vaults were
once bustling with life, the vast overflow
of an ever-growing city.
When the vaults became mostly abandoned
because of the unwholesome atmosphere
they were still used sporadically by the
poor and homeless of Edinburgh society.
As with any great concentration of unhealthy
people, there were outbreaks of plague
and other devastating illnesses; many
of the people who took refuge in the vaults
ultimately died there. There is evidence
that at least some of these people may
have met untimely ends because it was
here in the Edinburgh Vaults that the
nefarious pair, Burke and Hare, plied
their trade of providing cadavers to the
nearby teaching hospitals of Infirmary
Street.
Paranormal investigations have been conducted
in the vaults practically since their
discovery and to date the location has
not failed to provide a wealth of disturbing
and unexplainable activity. Recently visited
by the crew from England’s “Most
Haunted,” the vaults maintained
their reputation as the spookiest place
in Edinburgh – no member of the
team would voluntarily return there.
Greyfriar’s Cemetery has been considered
haunted for generations. Its history is
filled with the horrific, from deliberate
headstone removal and desecration, bodysnatching
and live burial, to witch burnings and
use as a mass prison. Around 1998, however,
a new and inexplicable phenomenon began
occurring in the graveyard where visitors
claimed to have encountered cold spots,
nauseating smells, loud noises coming
from empty tombs, and even physical injury.
Many visitors and tour guides have been
the victim of attack by unseen entities
who leave bruises, cuts, and scratches
on the unwary. People were routinely knocked
unconscious and overcome by debilitating
nausea and vomiting. Homes near the graveyard
became plagues by poltergeist activities
such as smashed china and glassware, moving
objects, shadowy figures, and menacing,
guttural laughter.
There are two areas of the cemetery where
activity is extremely dense, one being
the area around the MacKenzie Mausoleum
(also called the Black Tomb) and the other
in the gated area known as the Covenanter’s
Prison.
It is said that George MacKenzie is the
shadowy entity haunting the area near
his family tomb. In the 17th century,
MacKenzie, a loyal subject to Charles
II of England, is said to have ruthlessly
persecuted and imprisoned “unrepentant”
Scottish Presbyterians who formally entered
into what they called a “Covenant
Between God and Country.” This act
of Scottish loyalty excluded the authority
of Charles II and it is said that MacKenzie
soundly punished all those Covenanters
he could round up. Many were imprisoned
in harsh and unforgiving conditions in
a small area inside Greyfriar’s
and most of the Covenanters died there
rather than revoke their oath. Since that
horrible event, the Covenanter’s
Prison as well as the MacKenzie Mausoleum
have both been fearsomely active, although
it was not until recently that the spirits
said to inhabit the area have begun to
strike out against visitors and nearby
residents.
Currently, the Covenanter’s Prison
area is only accessible to visitors accompanied
by a tour guide; the MacKenzie Mausoleum
is nearby and can be visited and photographed
– at one’s own peril, evidently.
No. 5: Coliseum, Rome, Italy.
At the height of Rome’s power the
Coliseum represented everything that was
Imperial to the citizens of Rome. Gladiators
would fight to the death here for the
amusement of Caesar and the mobs; thousands
of prisoners of war and victims of religious
persecution met their end in the jaws
of lions and tigers in the sandy arena
of the Coliseum; and even those animals
were decimated, for in its time the Coliseum
consumed tens of thousands of animals,
some reportedly driven into extinction
by the Roman lust for blood and gore.
The workings
of the Coliseum, the place where the real
grit of life took place, were in the vaults
beneath the sandy floor. Now long ago
exposed by the ravages of time, there
is still a pervasive feeling of awe associated
with the lingering presence of a power
so mighty it once encompassed the entire
known world.
In the pits beneath the Coliseum gladiators
waited to fight, prisoners waited to die,
and average Romans placed bets on the
outcomes of myriad competitions. Such
a fabric of life can’t help but
wrap itself around the pillars and posts
that make up the foundation of this ancient
charnel house, and it is no surprise that
many reports of ghostly activity have
been associated with the Coliseum over
the years.
Tour guides and visitors alike have reported
cold spots, being touched or pushed, hearing
indiscernible words whispered into their
ears; security guards with the unenviable
task of securing the ancient edifice have
reported hearing the sounds of swords
clashing, of weeping in the more remote
areas, and, oddly enough most disconcerting,
the sound of ghostly animal noises such
as the roars of lions and elephants. Ghostly
citizens have been seen among the seats
of the Coliseum, and the sight of a Roman
soldier standing guard, silhouetted against
the night sky, is a common one.
With such ancient history and such a legacy
of death and bloodshed, there is little
wonder why the Roman Coliseum is one of
the most haunted places in the world.
No. 6: Walachia, Transylvania, Land of
Dracul, Romania.
“Beyond the green swelling hills
of the Mittel Land rose mighty slopes
of forest up to the lofty steeps of the
Carpathians themselves. Right and left
of us they towered, with the afternoon
sun falling full upon them and bringing
out all the glorious colours of this beautiful
range, deep blue and purple in the shadows
of the peaks, green and brown where grass
and rock mingled, and an endless perspective
of jagged rock and pointed crags, till
these were themselves lost in the distance,
where the snowy peaks rose grandly . .
.
“Just then a heavy cloud passed
across the face of the moon, so that we
were again in darkness . . . This was
all so strange and uncanny that a dreadful
fear came upon me, and I was afraid to
speak or more. The time seemed interminable,
as we swept on our way, no in almost complete
darkness, for the rolling clouds obscured
the moon.
“We kept on ascending, with occasional
periods of quick descent, but in the main
always ascending. Suddenly, I became conscious
of the fact that the driver was in the
act of pulling up the horses in the courtyard
of a vast ruined castle, from whose tall
black windows came no ray of light, and
whose broken battlements showed a jagged
line against the sky.”
-- “Dracula” by Bram Stoker.
“Perhaps the only place I felt Dracula’s
presence was on a long, curving road that
twists over the Transylvanian Alps. The
area is so remote and impenetrable that
no major road crossed this often stormy
mountain pass until 1974. As my car climbed
into the mist, traffic disappeared, and
the radio stopped working. The road passes
a dam and a hydroelectric plant guarded
by a handful of soldiers standing alone
in the gloom. And at the bottom of the
road are the ruins of a castle.
Dracula’s castle.
Really.
Dracula created this fortress as a refuge.
When the Turkish army surrounded him,
he is said to have escaped through a tunnel
and disappeared into the mountains.
His young son was strapped to the side
of his horse but slipped off and was left
for dead. His wife didn’t even try
to flee. She threw herself to death from
a tower window.
I stepped out of the car to take a look.
But it was night now, and the climb to
the castle would be difficult. I looked
up at the dark mountains and started to
shiver, glad to have a car to spirit me
away.”
--Larry Bleiburg, The Dallas Morning News,
January 2, 2005
We think that’s enough said!
With
Haunted World Tours you’re never at
a loss for a ghostly destination!
Whether you like touring
the dark and damp streets of Jack the Ripper’s
London, or plumbing the depths of the catacombs
deep beneath the streets of Paris –
Haunted World Tours can get you there.
If you
have pictured yourself on a moonlit road
deep in the Old South, hunting for remnants
of Civil War ghosts and local graveyard
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drifting silently among the cypress draped
trees of the Louisiana swamps in search
of La Loup Garou, the werewolf of the Atchafalaya
Basin – Haunted World Tours can get
you there.
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of Vlad Dracul’s Transylvania that
makes your pulse race, or walking in the
footsteps of doomed-to-die witches on a
full moon night in Salem, Massachusetts
– Haunted World Tours can get you
there.
Haunted
World Tours can tailor a vacation package
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No. 7:
Unit 731 Experimentation Camp, Harbin,
Manchuria, China.
“It is called the Asian Auschwitz
and, in terms of inhumanity and horror,
it certainly warrants this description.
Yet there remains a fundamental difference
with the crimes perpetrated by the Nazis
against Jews: While Germany has shown
deep contrition and remorse, the leaders
the country that spawned the evil of Unit
731 still struggle to come to grips with
what occurred . . . In the end at least
3,000 prisoners, mainly Chinese, were
killed directly, with a further 250,000
Chinese left to die through the biological
warfare experiments.”
In the gruesome world of Unit 731 the
unthinkable was done on a daily basis.
Prisoners, mostly taken in Japan’s
conquest of Manchuria at the beginning
of WWII, were subjected to unimaginable
horrors. They were infected with diseases
such as anthrax, cholera and even bubonic
plague. To gauge the effect of these diseases
on their subjects – whom they dehumanized
by calling them “logs” –
live, un-anesthetized vivisection was
performed. In many cases the subjects
would regain consciousness while the dissection
was taking place.
Whole towns and villages were decimated
by the ghoulish doctors and researchers
of Unit 731 and the effects of their
horrible crimes still resonate there
to this day.
Parts of the Unit 731 complex still
remain – there are buildings where
frostbite experiments were performed,
courtyards and open areas where prisoners
were subjected to live bombs detonated
at close range to enable researchers
to evaluate the effect of explosives
of the sort that Japanese soldiers were
encountering in the fields. Other buildings
where live human vivisections took place
overlook the prisoner holding area and
the long-unused railway station where
the “logs” were offloaded
for their horrible fate.
The Chinese government sanctioned the
Unit and the surrounding area as a learning
center for future generations of Chinese,
and just recently visitors from the
West have been allowed access to the
killing fields at Harbin. But for many
years there have been reports of paranormal
activity associated with the old charnel
houses: ghost lights and apparitions
are frequently seen, including a ghostly
figure that walks the empty precincts
surrounding the frostbite units. Ghostly
voices have been heard and anomalies
frequently appear in photographs taken
in the area. Recently, during the filming
of a BBC television documentary, the
English film crew experienced unexplainable
problems with their lights and batteries
– often a sure sign of ghostly
activity. Many speculate that as the
story of Unit 731 is more widely told,
the ghosts of those tragically tormented
and murdered there are becoming more
and more active, and more anxious for
justice than ever before.
No. 8: Palmyra Island Atoll, Pacific
Ocean.
Many have extrapolated the question:
Can an entire island be haunted? Palmyra
Island, really an atoll along the rim
of a long dead Pacific volcano, has
a long history among sailors and landlubbers
alike as being an unwholesome place.
Perhaps best known as the location of
a sensational 1970’s murder case
detailed by author Vincent Bugliosi
in his novel “And the Sea Will
Tell,” Palmyra has long featured
in many cautionary tales passed among
old salts who know perhaps more than
they care to about the troublesome speck
in the ocean.
Many claim that there is a “malevolent
aura” surrounding Palmyra, such
as Richard Taylor, a yachtsman who gave
testimony at the sensational murder
trial:
“I had a foreboding feeling about
the island. It was more than just the
fact that it was a ghost-type island;
it was more than that. It seemed to
be an unfriendly place to be. I’ve
been on a number of atolls, but Palmyra
was different. I can’t put my
finger on specifically why, but it was
not an island that I enjoyed being on.
I think other people have had difficulties
on that island.”
Palmyra has been called the remotest
place on earth, one of the last few
truly uninhabited islands, lying near
the very center of the Pacific Ocean,
about 1000 nautical miles south-southwest
of Hawaii and about one-half of the
way from Hawaii to American Samoa. It
is tiny – measuring approximately
a mile and a half long and a half-mile
wide. The island lies well off the major
Asian/American shipping lanes. There
is a huge bird population and an abundance
of insect and reptile life. The interior
is rain forest jungle and the entire
island is surrounded by coral reef;
the waters of the reef and the inland
lagoons are prime breeding spots for
gray and blacktip sharks that are found
to be unusually aggressive in the waters
surrounding Palmyra. Some visitors and
servicemen who spent time on the island
in WWII reported that the sharks took
“one to two” victims a month.
Even the native fish that populate the
reef are poisonous because they feed
on deadly algae that grows on the coral,
making them deadly to consume.
Legends of the island appearing out
of nowhere and nearly grounding vessels
are intermingled with tales of buried
pirate gold; even in modern times, in
addition to the grisly murder of the
1970’s, there have been bizarre
and deadly occurrences. Many of these
tales include the crashes and unexplained
disappearances of US fighter planes
during the war – a history similar
to the Bermuda Triangle legacy. But
where Bermuda is inhabitable and has
some redeeming attractions, there is
nothing to redeem Palmyra Island, at
least in the minds of those who have
experienced it. Truly, as one man said,
“only H.P. Lovecraft could have
invented this place.”
No. 9: Catacombs, Paris, France.
Long ago, as the city of Paris grew,
it became necessary to provide more
space for the living. To do so, engineers
and planners decided to move the mass
of humanity least likely to protest:
in this case, the dead. Millions of
Parisian dead were quietly disinterred
in one of the largest engineering feats
in history and their remains were deposited
along the walls of the chilly, dank
passageways lying beneath the City of
Light. They lie there to this day, in
the eternal darkness, an Empire of the
Dead.
The Paris Catacombs are infamous and
much has been written about their history
and purpose. A million visitors a year
are said to walk the dank corridors
and to stare at the bones and gaze fixedly
into the empty eye-sockets of the long
dead. Many of these same visitors, and
some of their guides, have encountered
more than just the silence in the catacombs:
they have had encounters with ghostly
inhabitants that roam the empty passageways
and mutely follow the tour groups around.
Several report seeing a group of shadows
in one area of the catacombs; as the
living walk along, the dead follow in
complete silence. To some the experience
is completely overwhelming and tours
have been cut short by the growing sense
of unease. Photos have revealed orbs
and ghostly apparitions, and EVPs have
been recorded throughout the vaults.
The catacombs were first cleared in
Roman times, with succeeding generations
of Gauls and Frenchmen perfecting the
Roman engineering. Now the catacombs
are a veritable rabbit’s warren,
and though many boldly enter without
a guide, to do so puts one at risk of
being lost there forever. There have
been many reports of rash individuals
who wandered into the catacombs for
a laugh and who have never been seen
again.
This, and many chilling tales of experiences
in this Empire of the Dead, put the
Paris Catacombs on our list of most
haunted places.
No. 10: Magh Sleacht Plain, near Ballyconnell,
County Cavan, Ireland.
Cavan is a sparsely populated county
in north central Ireland, immediately
south of the border with Northern Ireland
and midway between the Atlantic Ocean
and the Irish Sea. The countryside is
dotted with lakes and hills, and the
River Shannon, the longest in Ireland,
originates in the rugged Cuilcagh Mountains
in the west of Cavan.
Cairn tombs and crannog islands dating
from ancient times abound in Cavan and
Magh Sleacht Plain, near Ballyconnell,
was once an important Celtic pagan shrine.
Here was located the dreaded Crom Cruach,
the Bloody Bent One, the Elder King,
the Chief Idol of Ireland.
In ancient days Magh Sleacht, which
means “Plain of Adoration,”
was the location of a mighty stone,
covered all in hammered gold, which
was the stone image of Crom Cruach.
In those days, he was surrounded by
twelve smaller stones, gods in ready
attendance on the whims of the mighty
Old One. Here parents came to sacrifice
one third of their children to Crom
on Samhain night (October 31st) in exchange
for a year full of milk, corn, fertile
cattle and a fertile growing season.
The god horrified many because of his
terrible demands and it was dangerous
to worship him because worshippers themselves
often died in the orgiastic bloodbath
that he required.
The worship of Crom Cruach is said to
have been demanded by King Tigernmas
whom some describe as a Roman Chieftain,
while others claim he was one of the
last of the Formorian Kings. Still others
believe Crom to be the manifestation
of Moloch, the ancient god of the idolatrous
Hebrews to whom they sacrificed half
their newborn children in a trial by
fire. The similarities do not end there.
King Tigernmas himself died in worship
of the Bloody Bent One, killed by rabid
followers in an orgy of blood.
Many believe that the legend is simply
that, a legend. Others point to the
mention of Crom Cruach in the St. Patrick
legend: they claim that when Patrick
established Christianity at nearby Armagh,
he went to Magh Sleacht and defeated
Crom, and having done so, caused the
golden idol to sink into the earth.
In recent times, however, some followers
of the pagan faith have rediscovered
Crom Cruach and, perhaps he has been
waiting patiently to answer their call.
Visitors to the plain of Magh Sleacht
report strange occurrences including
the sound of chanting and the smell
of burning meat or flesh; others have
photographed shadowy shapes that linger
about the rocks near sunset; still others
claim to have seen ghostly apparitions
on the plain in the light of day.
Just as in ancient times, farmers and
travelers are giving the old plain a
wide berth. They believe that something
has lingered there in a long and fitful
sleep perhaps, but now it is awake again,
hungry and fretful. Can it be that the
Bloody Bent One has returned to his
native homeland? There are many who
think just that.
Countryside tours often include a trip
to County Cavan. A side trip to Magh
Sleacht may require an overnight stay
in nearby Ballyconnell, but isn’t
it worth it to experience the reawakening
of one of the oldest deities known to
man? Or, is it?
