• I worked in Poland as a teacher for three years and can think of no better country for the type of trip you describe. No other country suffered more during the second world war. Warsaw is really one huge war site, with a vast, Soviet-built war cemetery in the suburbs (in Pole Mokotowskie). There are also two of the most notorious concentration camps - Auschwitz and Treblinka - and Hitler's 'wolf lair' bunker, where he spent most of the war, is also located in the north of Poland in remote and hauntingly beautiful country. It is also much cheaper than Germany. If you want to see a place that was really at the coalface of recent history, you can't overlook Poland.
Craig Armstrong

• One of the cheapest ways to visit one of the various concentration camps in Eastern Europe is to take a coach to Krakow, Poland (about 28hrs from London). Stay in one of the government hostels and then take a local bus to Auschwitz (about 1hr).
Simon Baldry