Site of the Nazi notorious Auschwitz death camp is about one hour drive from Krakow. It’s easy to get there - especially that there are many companies offering Auschwitz trip - usually you visit Auschwitz and Birkenau State Museum and some historical buildings around the city. Just as a reminder - it’s really gruesome and shocking experience so - definitely not for everyone. Do not take children under 16 years old with you.

Brief history of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Death Camp

Between June 1941 and January 1945 about one million men, women and children perished in the Auschwitz concentration camp, Birkenau and Monowitz. At its peak the whole complex was a deadly prison, death camp and working camp to over 150,000 people of all origins.

The camp was build by Poles in 1930s as a prison and then transformed to Nazi concentration camp. During the Second Warld War it was rebuild by Nazis to be a death camp for the fact that there were properly developed railway communication routes with half of the Europe. First inmates, a group of Polish political prisoners (among them Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, later released) arrived to Auschwitz Camp on June 14, 1940. In addition to Poles and Jews there were also Soviets, Gypsies, and other nationals from the rest of German-occupied Europe imprisoned. In 1942, after the construction of the nearby Birkenau (Auschwitz II) concentration camp, trainloads of European Jews start to come - also from Krakow’s Kazimierz - Jewish district. Most of them were immediately put to death in the Birkenau gas chambers. The Auschwitz death machine was in full operation until January 1945 when evacuation started. On 27 January 1945 Soviet Military forces took over Oswiecim and in 1947 new Polish government created Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum on the site of the concentration camps. In 1979 UNESCO entered the Auschwitz concentration camp and the Birkenau death camp in its list of World Heritage sites.

Visiting the Auschwitz

Every year over 500,000 visitors come to Oswiecim, an industrial town of 45,000, to see the Auschwitz. Half of them are Poles, and the rest mostly from the USA, Germany, the UK, France, Italy, and Israel. Over 25 million people have already visited the place and that number is groving constantly.

Admission to the Auschwitz is free. It takes minimum an hour to see the Auschwitz properly, and another one to visit the nearby Birkenau site.