Auschwitz-Birkenau — Memorial and Museum at Oświęcim

How the camp came about

The camp was set up in 1940 by German occupation authorities in Oświęcim, a small town in southern Poland that had been annexed to the German Reich and renamed Auschwitz. Heinrich Himmler signed the order on 27 April 1940, and the barracks and workshops of a former Polish army garrison became the first buildings. The first mass transport arrived on 14 June 1940: 728 Polish political prisoners brought from the jail in Tarnów. For its first year Auschwitz was a camp for Poles — teachers, priests, resistance members, people swept up in street round-ups.

In 1941, three kilometres away beside the village of Brzezinka, the Germans began building Auschwitz II-Birkenau, first for Soviet prisoners of war and then as the largest killing site in the whole camp system. A third part, Auschwitz III-Monowitz, served as forced labour for an IG Farben chemical plant, and dozens of sub-camps were attached to mines, foundries and farms. Villagers from the surrounding area were expelled and the whole district declared a zone of camp interests.

The victims and the liberation

About 1.3 million people were deported to Auschwitz and at least 1.1 million were killed. Jews from across Europe were by far the largest group, close to a million, most of them murdered in the gas chambers within hours of arrival and never entered in any register. The victims also include some 75,000 Poles, 21,000 Roma and Sinti, 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war and several thousand people of other nationalities. These figures come from decades of research by the Museum's own historians and are the best documented estimate available.

In January 1945, with the front approaching, the SS marched tens of thousands of prisoners westwards and blew up the gas chambers and crematoria at Birkenau in an attempt to destroy the evidence. On 27 January 1945 Red Army soldiers reached the camp and freed roughly seven thousand prisoners too weak to walk. That date is now International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Two sites, three kilometres apart

The Memorial covers just under 192 hectares in two places. Auschwitz I is the smaller, around twenty hectares: brick blocks, the gate with its "Arbeit macht frei" sign, Block 11 with its cells and the Death Wall in the yard, and exhibitions assembled from what was taken from people on arrival — suitcases, spectacles, shoes, prosthetics. It is dense, mostly indoors, and usually takes the longest.

Birkenau is ten times larger, about 171 hectares, and reads as the opposite: a vast, nearly empty field, rows of chimneys where barracks once stood, the railway spur and the ramp where SS men decided who would live, and the dynamited ruins of gas chambers and crematoria II and III. At the far end of the main axis stands the International Monument, unveiled in 1967, with plaques in dozens of languages. A free Museum shuttle links the two sites.

Museum, archive, World Heritage

Former prisoners pushed for the site to be preserved, and the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum was formally created by an act of the Polish parliament on 2 July 1947, which placed the grounds of both camps under protection. The institution runs an archive, a research department and conservation workshops that look after not only the buildings but tens of thousands of objects and documents.

The site was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979. In 2007, at Poland's request, the entry was renamed "Auschwitz Birkenau. German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp (1940-1945)", so that the name itself makes clear who built and ran the camp rather than leaving it associated with the occupied country it stood in. Close to two million people visit each year, and more than twenty-five million have come since the Museum opened.

Getting there

• By car — Oświęcim lies about 50 km west of Kraków and just over 40 km from Katowice, near the A4 motorway; both parts of the Memorial have car parks.
• By train — direct services run from Kraków and Katowice to Oświęcim station, with a city bus or a short walk on to Auschwitz I.
• By bus — buses from Kraków stop at the Memorial and take roughly one and a half to two hours.
• Between the sites — a free shuttle bus runs between Auschwitz I and Birkenau every few minutes in season; walking takes about 45 minutes.

Before you go

Entry is free, but you must book an entry card for a fixed time slot in advance, and in summer the slots go weeks ahead. A guided visit to both parts takes around three and a half hours, which is a realistic minimum; many people return to Birkenau on their own afterwards. There is a security check at the entrance, and larger bags have to be left in the luggage room.

The Museum advises against visits by children under fourteen. This is not about tickets but about the exhibitions, which show the consequences of genocide without softening. If you are coming with teenagers or a school group, talk the history through beforehand — there is no time for that on site.

Behave as you would in a cemetery: keep quiet, eat and drink only in the designated areas, take no posed photographs, and stay off the ruins and the railway tracks. Photography is forbidden in a few places, including the gas chamber room at Auschwitz I. Most of the route is outdoors on gravel and grass, so solid shoes and weatherproof clothing matter more than they sound.

How to get there and practical info

Location

Oświęcim, Lesser Poland Voivodeship; about 50 km west of Kraków

Size of the Memorial

just under 192 ha — Auschwitz I (about 20 ha) and Birkenau (about 171 ha)

Time needed

at least three and a half hours for both parts

Age guidance

the Museum does not recommend the visit for children under 14

Admission

free, with an entry card booked in advance

Between the sites

about 3 km, free Museum shuttle bus

Current hours and tickets

official site of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum

When to go