A Brief History Of Auschwitz
Auschwitz, the largest of the Nazi concentration and death camps, opened in 1940. It began as a detention centre for political prisoners.
However, the base soon evolved into a network of centres where Jewish people and other enemies of the Nazi state were used as slave labour or exterminated, often in gas chambers.
Some of the prisoners were also subjected to barbaric medical experiments led by Josef Mengele, the so-called Angel of Death.
During the Second World War, it is believed that between 1.1 million to 1.5 million people, the vast majority of them Jews, died at Auschwitz. It is estimated that 70,000 -80,000 Poles also perished at the camp, and approximately 20,000 Romas and some Soviet prisoners of war.
In January 1945, with news of the Soviet army approaching, Nazi officials ordered the abandonment of the Auschwitz camp and an estimated 60,000 prisoners were forced to march to the Polish towns of Gliwice or Wodzislaw, some 30 miles away. Countless prisoners died during this journey.
When the Soviet army entered the Auschwitz Camp on January 27, 1945, they found approximately 7,500 sick or severely emaciated detainees, who had been abandoned and left behind.
The liberators also discovered huge mounds of dead bodies; many thousands of pieces of clothing and pairs of shoes, and seven tons of human hair.
Auschwitz Today
Today, the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum is open to all. It depicts the terrible history of what happened on this site. Plus it serves as a memorial to all those that died there.
Taking The Guided Tour Of Auschwitz I
The first part of the guided tour begins by passing beneath a replica of the infamous ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ (‘Work Makes You Free’) entrance gate.
From the entrance gate, the tour route takes you past the kitchens, where the concentration camp orchestra used to play as the prisoners marched to work.
You’ll then visit Block 4. Inside are exhibits that include mugshots of the inmates, the original architectural sketches for the gas chambers, plus tins of Zyklon B used for extermination.
The most disturbing is the seven tons of human hair that were once destined for German factories to be used as raw material for haircloth and felt.
Personal property was taken from all the newly arrived prisoners. In Block 5, you’ll see large piles of artificial limbs, labelled suitcases, glasses, shaving kits and shoes, thousands of shoes.
As so many guided tours are taking place, you’ll actually pass through this site quite quickly so, at the time, it’s quite hard to reflect on the enormity of what you’re seeing.
Block 6 illustrates the daily life of the prisoners. Here you will see photographs, artists’ drawings and tools that were used for hard labour. Some of the former barracks recreate the harsh living conditions that prisoners endured.
Outside Block 11 is the ‘Wall of Death’ where the SS shot thousands of prisoners.
Inside Block 11 are the claustrophobic cellars where, in 1941, the Nazi’s conducted their experiments with poisonous gas on the prisoners.
The tiny ‘standing cells’ that measure just 90 x 90 cm remain intact; this is where up to four prisoners would be held for indefinite amounts of time.
The tour concludes at the horrifying gas chamber and crematoria. The two furnaces were able to burn 350 corpses daily.
This point is the end of part one of the tour. After almost two hours, there is a short 10-15 minute break, an opportunity to reflect, use the facilities or grab some refreshments.
Guided Tour of Auschwitz II – Birkenau
The second part of the tour begins with a short bus ride Auschwitz II – Birkenau.
This second camp was added in 1942. Although, very little remains here, at one time there were 300 barracks and buildings on this 175-hectare site.
The purpose-built train tracks that lead directly into the concentration camp still remain. It was here that the grisly selection process took place. 70% of those who arrived here by train were herded directly into the gas chambers.
Those remaining who were considered fit for slave labour lived in the squalid, unheated barracks where disease, exhaustion, and starvation, accounted for multitudinous lives.
At the far end of the camp lie the crumpled remains of the crematoria.
The tour finishes at the International Monument where you’ll see a row of granite slabs with an inscription in every major European Language.
The English inscription reads, “For ever let this place be a cry of despair and a warning to humanity, where the Nazis murdered about one and a half million men, women and children mainly Jews from various countries of Europe Auschwitz-Birkenau 1940-1945.”
This part of the tour takes around an hour, after which, you are free to explore by yourself, take photos and reflect before catching the return bus to Auschwitz I.
Visiting Hours For Auschwitz
The museum is open daily except for New Year’s Day, Christmas Day, and Easter Sunday.
07:30 – 14:00 December
07:30 – 15:00 January, November
07:30 – 16:00 February
07:30 – 17:00 March, October
07:30 – 18:00 April , May, September
07:30 – 19:00 June, July, August
Visitors to the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum may stay until 90 minutes after the last entrance hour (i.e. 17:30 in February or 20:30 in July)
How Much Does It Cost To Visit Auschwitz?
Entrance to Auschwitz is free, but we would really recommend taking one of the guided tours to get a better understanding of the atrocities that took place here. Tickets can be booked here. It’s also a good idea to book in advance as the tours fill up quickly.
When we visited in December, the museum was packed with guided tours, but everything was extremely well organised and ran very efficiently. Everyone wears headphones, so you won’t hear other groups shouting over each other.
However, because of the large number of visitors, you move through some of the exhibits quite quickly, so don’t really have time to reflect on what you are witnessing.
Note: Visiting Auschwitz is not recommended for under -14s.
How Much Time Should I Allow For Visiting Auschwitz?
Allow at least three and a half hours to see the museum. The first part of the tour takes around 1hour 50 minutes. Then there’s a short break before taking a bus transfer to the next site.
You’ll be here for about an hour before returning to the main grounds. If you wish to stay longer exploring Auschwitz-Birkenau on your own, that’s possible at the end of the tour.
How Far Is Auschwitz From Krakow?
The concentration camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau are located in the medieval city of Oswiecim which is about 66 kilometres west of Krakow. We actually spent the night in Oswiecim at the lovely 7th Room Guest House, so we could walk at leisure to the museum and then take a train later that day to Krakow.
How To Get To Auschwitz From Krakow
The easiest way to visit Auschwitz is by booking a tour either online or once you are in Krakow.
If you wish to travel independently to Auschwitz, there are various options.
Shuttle Bus – There’s a shuttle bus that runs from Krakow Bus station to the museum. The journey time takes around an hour and 30 minutes and costs €4 each way.
Local Bus – A little cheaper than the shuttle and involves a short ten-minute walk from the bus stop to the museum. Cost 10-12 PLN.
Train – Costs around 9PLN and takes about an hour and 50 minutes. From the station in Oswiecim, it’s about a twenty-minute walk to the museum.
Would We Recommend Visiting Auschwitz?
Yes. We understand that visiting Auschwitz is not for everyone, but we believe it’s essential to understand the horrors of the past and ensure that such atrocities are not repeated. The guides are excellent. They relay the facts, it’s not sensationalised, and they will answer any questions you may have.
Have you visited Auschwitz or other similar sites? We would love to hear about your experiences. Please tell us about them in the comments
below.
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Auschwitz is a place that never fails to send a chill down your spine even when you read about it. Visiting it must be a very poignant experience indeed. Whenever you visit such places, you need to be mentally prepared. We had a similar experience when we visited the Tuol Sleng genocide museum in Phnom Penh. You have provided a complete guide for visiting Auschwitz, which will be really helpful for visitors.
We’ve been to a couple of other concentration camps, the most memorable is Bergen Belsen in Germany. We took our two youngest kids, who were teens at the time, after reading Anne Frank’s Diary and visiting the attic in Amsterdam. It was very emotional for us all. The mounds of people, with numbers to show how many were in each mound was unbelievable. My daughter visited Auschwitz as an adult and said the shoes were the most striking thing to her. I’m so glad that we were able to have the experience and don’t understand how anyone can say the Holocaust wasn’t a real event.
This gave me chills. It is such a dark spot in history, but this museum is one that I would love to visit.
Austwitz left a deep impact in me when I visited there .. infact along with that I also visit birkneu salt mines which was even tragic .. All this dark tourism always makes me realise how important it is to understand the effects which brings disharmony in the lives of all people .
This is a helpful guide. It’s important to be prepared for when you visit a site such as this as it’s easy to get overwhelmed if you don’t know what you’re in for. A couple of years ago we visited the Rwandan Genocide Memorial in Kigali which was pretty harrowing too. I think I’d visit Auschwitz if I ever found myself in Krakow.
A very in-depth and moving post to read. Something about finding 7 tonnes of hair was discovered along with limbs etc is harrowing. I have never been to any POW camps but am aware of their stories and history. It is good that the story of these atrocious places is still shared for the current and future generations to remember a tragic time in history.
Such a tragic place to visit. I have never been but for all the points you raise it has been on my list for a few years. I believe it’s so important to visit museums like this & learn about all the brutality that happened there in the past. Reading your post took me back to the time I visited the Killing Fields in Cambodia. That sickening feeling when you hear the stories of how one human can treat another is truly harrowing. Thank you for sharing..it remains on my list & this guide will be really useful when I finally get there.
Visiting Auschwitz would definitely send a chill through my spine! But I would still like to visit this place to remember what dark times have passed in history. Thanks for this comprehensive guide for visiting Auschwitz.
A tour like this is so important. While I’m sure its tough, we all need to be reminded of the horrors of the Nazi regime–and others–so that its never repeated. Thank you for your honest recap of this experience.
Visiting auschwitz is something my husband has been on me to do, but I dont know if that trip is really for me. Just reading about your experience makes me want to cry, so I would probobly vomit-sob like crazy if I went there in person 😛
I have no filter on my feelings 😀
Places like this needed to be visited at least once just to put the atrocious events of the past into perspective. I haven’t been here, but when I visited the Museum of Tolerance we had an eerie encounter. It’s a multi media and immersive experience, and at one point you wander into a small claustrophobic room and when you’re in it you can’t see a way out, and there’s nothing on the walls, and you don’t know why you’re there, and the AC is on, it’s cold, and you get goosebumps, as you continue to walk through it, your confusion mounts and then it seems like you can’t get out, and you start to get anxious. Then there’s a small sign at the end about remembrance to the gas chambers, and you realize what they’ve done with this exhibit. Probably the most powerful and impactful exhibit at this museum, that’s gives you just a tiny glimpse of the confusion. I know it’s nowhere close to reality, but still done incredibly well.
Such a chilling place but so important to visit. I toured Dachau when I was stationed in Germany and I could just feel the death that took place there. I remember feeling physically sick to my stomach that humans could do this to other humans. It is important to support these sites so that people remember and don’t let it happen again.
I have visited Auschwitz a few years back and I too did write about the experience. Like you, I also believe that we should visit such places at least once in our lifetime and utter from our heart – “Never again”.
I have heard that Auschwitz was the largest of the Nazi concentration and death camps during 1940’s. Visiting this site where prisoners were treated so inhumanely looks very emotional to me. It would be so painful to see all those wagons or gas chamber sites.